Sierra Space CEO suddenly announces retirement
The CEO of Sierra Space, Tom Vice, revealed yesterday his decision to retire at the end of 2024, providing no reasons for the decision.
Vice had not previously announced any plans to retire from Sierra Space, where he had been chief executive since mid-2021. When the company issued the statement about his retirement, Vice was still listed on Sierra Space’s website in his roles as chief executive and a member of the company’s board of directors.
Sierra Space said that the chairman of the board of Sierra Space, Fatih Ozmen, would serve as interim chief executive while the company looks for a permanent replacement. He is chief executive and co-owner of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the company from which Sierra Space was spun out in 2021.
The coming year is going to be critical for Sierra, as it will finally launch Tenacity to ISS after years of delays. Should it fail, the company will face huge hurtles to survive. Maybe Vice, who is 61, decided it was time to actually retire. He also likely didn’t want take on that risk.
Overall Vice’s leadership had been good for Sierra. The company’s work accelerated significantly after it was spun off from Sierra Nevada.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The CEO of Sierra Space, Tom Vice, revealed yesterday his decision to retire at the end of 2024, providing no reasons for the decision.
Vice had not previously announced any plans to retire from Sierra Space, where he had been chief executive since mid-2021. When the company issued the statement about his retirement, Vice was still listed on Sierra Space’s website in his roles as chief executive and a member of the company’s board of directors.
Sierra Space said that the chairman of the board of Sierra Space, Fatih Ozmen, would serve as interim chief executive while the company looks for a permanent replacement. He is chief executive and co-owner of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the company from which Sierra Space was spun out in 2021.
The coming year is going to be critical for Sierra, as it will finally launch Tenacity to ISS after years of delays. Should it fail, the company will face huge hurtles to survive. Maybe Vice, who is 61, decided it was time to actually retire. He also likely didn’t want take on that risk.
Overall Vice’s leadership had been good for Sierra. The company’s work accelerated significantly after it was spun off from Sierra Nevada.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Thoughts on this being a way to provide a way in for Tory Bruno and possibly parts of ULA?
A built-for-reuse orbiter / lander and a non-reusable booster don’t sound like a great pair. I get the impression that ULA wants to be in the business of manufacturing rockets, while Sierra wants to be in the business of flying rockets.
Ray Van Dune,
I’m inclined to agree. Sierra’s weakness is that it has always subcontracted too much of its stuff to OldSpace outfits and that has slowed it a lot. The best example is that of having the main structure of Dream Chaser built by LockMart. The departed Vice, so far as I can tell as a casual observer, did nothing much toward doing more of Sierra’s work in-house.
AO1,
Interesting thought. Sierra’s owners would certainly have gotten to know Bruno pretty well while kicking ULA’s tires over the last couple of years.
But ULA has suffered from the same problem as has Sierra of over-reliance on sub-contractors for major components it lacks the capability of designing and making in-house. In ULA’s case that may well simply be a matter of Bruno’s limited maneuvering room given Boeing and LockMart’s history of treating ULA as a cash cow and not allowing it the funds needed to correct its internal deficiencies. In the case of Sierra the problem seems more organic. The Ozmens not only tapped LockMart to build, quite tardily, the main structure for Dream Chaser – echoing ULA’s difficulties with getting BE-4 engines from Blue Origin – but also took on its own role as a subcontractor for that very same Blue Origin on the Orbital Reef project about which Blue has also since dithered much and blown hot and cold. Perhaps Bruno – especially if Sierra actually bought ULA – could fill the gaps that have kept both companies from being as vertically integrated as it now seems plain they need to be to have any prayer of remaining viable going forward against competitors which are.