Sierra Space
There continues to be some work to do to arrange Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane for its first mission, however the firm says the winged resupply craft for the International Space Station will quickly ship to its launch website in Florida.
The Dream Chaser will take off on prime of a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket to go for the house station. A spokesperson for Sierra Space instructed Ars the spaceplane’s launch is scheduled for the third or fourth quarter of this 12 months.
But Sierra Space will transport the Dream Chaser to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a to-do checklist. There are two extra vital exams the spacecraft should full on the launch website. Technicians should additionally end work on Dream Chaser’s warmth protect earlier than it is able to go on prime of its Vulcan launcher. It’s unclear how lengthy these actions will take to finish.
Nevertheless, the spaceplane is about to depart NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio, the place it has undergone environmental testing since December. Sierra Space carried out the exams in Ohio in a number of phases.
First, Sierra Space engineers carried out shock exams with ULA to verify the spacecraft’s response to the jolt of separation from the Vulcan rocket in orbit. Then, floor groups stacked the Dream Chaser spaceplane on prime of its rear-mounted pressurized cargo module and positioned your entire car on a shaker desk to simulate the vibrations the spacecraft will expertise throughout launch.
Sierra Space subsequent carried out one other shock take a look at utilizing the separation system that can jettison the disposable cargo module from the reusable spaceplane earlier than reentry and touchdown on the finish of its mission. Lastly, engineers transferred Dream Chaser to a thermal vacuum chamber on the Ohio take a look at facility, the place, for 5 weeks, the spacecraft was subjected to the airless setting and the intense temperature swings of low-Earth orbit.
“Successful completion of an extremely rigorous environmental testing marketing campaign in shut partnership with NASA is a big milestone and places Dream Chaser on observe for operations later this 12 months,” stated Tom Vice, Sierra Space’s CEO. “This is the 12 months that we transition from rigorous analysis and improvement to common orbital operations and—in doing so—remodel the way in which we join house and Earth.”
Sierra Space’s to-do checklist
Dream Chaser has been in improvement for greater than 15 years, and the idea goes again additional than that. NASA kick-started the present iteration of the business spaceplane with the award of a business cargo contract to Sierra Nevada, Sierra Space’s father or mother firm, in 2016.
This would be the first of seven resupply missions Dream Chaser will fly to the International Space Station below the NASA contract. The firm is constructing a second reusable spaceplane to assist meet its dedication to NASA and probably service follow-on business house stations.
Finally, the end line for Dream Chaser is now in sight. Last 12 months, the primary spaceplane, named Tenacity, left Sierra Space’s manufacturing facility close to Denver for the journey to the Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio. Ars visited Sierra Space’s manufacturing facility to see Dream Chaser a number of weeks earlier than its departure. The spacecraft was largely completed, however technicians continued to outfit the inside pressurized compartment of the spaceplane and add tiles for its warmth protect.