The first ship in a planned line, Tenacity, was completed at the company’s Louisville, Colorado, factory in November and then shipped to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Center in Sandusky, Ohio.
Sierra Space’s shuttle-like Dream Chaser was put through its paces in a powerful NASA vibration facility that mimics launch and atmospheric reentry conditions, officials said Thursday ahead of its planned first flight to the ISS this year.
The first spaceplane in a planned line, Tenacity, was completed at the company’s factory in Louisville, Colorado in November and then shipped to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Center in Sandusky, Ohio.
There, it was exhibited at the Mechanical Vibration Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft vibration system, NASA said.
Next, it will be placed in a huge underground vacuum chamber where it will experience the ultra-low and high temperatures of space, as well as ambient low pressure.
“We’re really excited that this year we’re starting orbital operations for NASA. This is a year where we’re changing the way we connect Earth and space,” Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice told reporters. during a press event in which the spacecraft was presented during the “launch”. configuration”, coupled with its Shooting Star cargo module.
Dream Chaser looks a lot like Space Shuttle, NASA’s iconic spacecraft that was decommissioned in 2011.
But it’s much smaller, flies autonomously, has a revamped propulsion system based on clean-burning hydrogen peroxide, and is designed to be reused up to 15 times.
Sierra Space, formerly Sierra Nevada Corporation, won a contract in 2016 to execute resupply missions for NASA to the International Space Station.
The first flight will deliver cargo to the orbital complex at an unspecified date this year, set atop a new Vulcan Centaur rocket from United Launch Alliance, which made its first flight in January.
Unlike SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, a gumball-shaped capsule that floats on parachutes to the ocean, Dream Chaser could theoretically land on a runway anywhere in the world, a feature marketed as a pitch sales to customers who purchase services.
Future versions will be designed to carry crew.
NASA’s goal is to create a private economy in low Earth orbit, allowing the space agency to focus on more ambitious missions to the Moon and Mars without commercial incentives.
Sierra Space’s other efforts include building a commercial space station called Orbital Reef.
© 2024 AFP
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