Redwire wins $20 million DARPA contract for second VLEO propulsion demo

what happened

Redwire won a $20 million DARPA contract under the agency's Otter program, which funds air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) technology for satellites operating between 90 km and 250 km in altitude, per Payload. The award follows a $44 million Phase 2 contract Redwire won under the same program in November 2025; the new funding builds a precursor mission on a scaled-down version of Redwire's SabreSat spacecraft, targeting a launch in late 2027, that will fly for less than a day in VLEO to test the ABEP system on-orbit for the first time, per Payload and FlightGlobal.

why it matters

VLEO flight can cut launch costs and sharpen imaging resolution for EO and ISR missions, but constant atmospheric drag has kept it impractical without heavy propellant mass. A working air-breathing thruster would give DoD and commercial EO operators a persistent low-altitude option without that fuel penalty.

for who

EO operators, in-space propulsion suppliers

signal-to-noise

quick facts

Companies

Redwire, DARPA

Category

contract

Impact

notable

SNR

4 / 5

Event date

2026-11-05

Published

2026-11-05 05:28 UTC