WASHINGTON \u2014 Sierra Space has completed key testing milestones for its Dream Chaser vehicle as the company explores both civil and national security missions for the spaceplane.<\/p>\n
The company announced Nov. 13 that the first Dream Chaser vehicle, Tenacity, completed electromagnetic interference and compatibility testing at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe completed the electrical system closeout and verified that, as we operate the vehicle, we\u2019re not interfering with ourselves or Dream Chaser\u2019s launch vehicle,\u201d said Dan Polis, vice president of engineering solutions at Sierra Space, in an interview.<\/p>\n
The company also conducted tow tests, where a truck pulled the spaceplane at high speeds at Space Florida\u2019s Launch and Landing Facility, the former shuttle landing runway at KSC, to test runway landing operations.<\/p>\n
The tow tests verified the closed-loop performance of the spaceplane\u2019s navigation systems, Polis said. They also confirmed that the vehicle can communicate both in line-of-sight mode and through NASA\u2019s TDRS network to the company\u2019s control center in Colorado.<\/p>\n
The next major test will take place in December with launch acoustics testing of the vehicle. Polis noted the company has previously tested the separate Shooting Star cargo module.<\/p>\n
Sierra Space has been developing Dream Chaser for years to provide cargo transportation services for the International Space Station. The company received a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 contract from NASA in 2016 that included seven missions to the ISS.<\/p>\n
However, in September the company announced NASA had agreed to modify that CRS-2 contract to cover just a single flight<\/a> planned for late 2026. That mission will not go to the ISS but instead test the vehicle in low Earth orbit. NASA, under the revised contract, retains the option to order additional cargo flights.<\/p>\n Sierra Space said at the time it was focusing on potential national security applications for Dream Chaser, but did not disclose specifics. In announcing the latest tests, the company said that after completing acoustics tests it will ship Dream Chaser back to Colorado, where \u201cmodifications for national security applications will be explored and performed.\u201d<\/p>\n Polis did not discuss those applications but said other vehicle testing will also take place in Colorado. That includes hot-fire tests of Dream Chaser\u2019s propulsion system and \u201cday in the life\u201d testing involving integration of hardware and software. It will then return to Florida for final launch preparations.<\/p>\n With no plans to go to the ISS on this demo mission, some elements of the test program will change. \u201cWe will gear our verification so there are some pivots away from things we were doing for a station-first mission, and pivot toward our new potential customers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tenacity arrived at KSC a year and a half ago<\/a> for what Sierra Space described as final vehicle testing. The company had planned to launch Dream Chaser on the second flight of United Launch Alliance\u2019s Vulcan rocket in late 2024, but agreed in June 2024 to give up its slot<\/a> so ULA, under schedule pressure to certify the rocket for national security missions, could perform the launch before the end of the year.<\/p>\n Polis said there was no specific issue that delayed Dream Chaser\u2019s launch. \u201cAs with any complex vehicle, we\u2019ve worked through non-conformances as we get to final vehicle integration,\u201d he said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say there was one thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Another factor, he said, was \u201cgetting mutual alignment with NASA\u201d on the future of the vehicle \u201cto really be able to exploit the vehicle\u2019s flexibility for multi-platform applications.\u201d<\/p>\n While Sierra Space is emphasizing national security uses, the company is keeping open the option of using Dream Chaser to support the ISS or future commercial space stations, known as commercial low Earth orbit destinations, or CLDs. \u201cNASA is a critical customer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe ultimately want to be their service provider after this first flight, and through their CLD partners, and so we have an eye on all of those requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a multi-purpose vehicle, and we see it fitting both national security and civil space,\u201d he said. \u201cNASA has been a great partner. We believe the contract realignment really showed their commitment to the vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Sierra Space has completed key testing milestones for its Dream Chaser vehicle as the company explores…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[31159,85,46,141,31160,3443],"class_list":{"0":"post-136442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-dream-chaser","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-science","12":"tag-sierra-space","13":"tag-sn"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}