Sierra Space Dream Chaser ‘mini shuttle’ space plane tests continue toward May maiden flight

Sierra Space’s “mini shuttle” Dream Chaser space plane may make its maiden flight in May after launching atop a rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. Pre-flight testing continues at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

Wednesday, Sierra Space officials announced the spacecraft successfully completed and passed another round of test milestones in collaboration with NASA. The test demonstrated Dream Chaser’s “ability to power-on, air-cool, and exchange data with multiple powered payloads inside its pressurized cabin,” a press release said.

The company’s latest launch target: no earlier than May, company spokesperson Alex Walker said.

The 30-foot-long Dream Chaser, which is named Tenacity, will launch atop a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. The uncrewed space plane is slated to deliver 7,800 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station, then descend to Earth and land like a space shuttle roughly 45 days later at KSC’s Launch and Landing Facility.

August 2024 story: Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser space plane to use new Kennedy Space Center prep facility

“What makes (us) unique specifically at Sierra Space is that, we don’t have 25 years of flight heritage like our ISS counterparts do to lean on for training,” flight operations engineer Grace Robertson said Wednesday during a SpaceCom panel discussion at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

“I am literally writing the rules by which we fly as we go,” Robertson said.

Meanwhile, Dream Chaser pre-launch testing continues at KSC. The successful milestones from the tests announced Wednesday involved three key payloads, Sierra Space reported.

“The Joint Test 10B test demonstrated that Sierra Space can provide power within a specific voltage range and maintain the necessary environmental requirements for payloads. It also ensured all vehicle and payload data are seen in both Sierra Space’s mission control room in Louisville, Colorado, and in the payload support control rooms at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama,” a press release said.

Walker said more testing, including acoustic testing, may occur in March. After the Vulcan lifts off from the Cape, NASA and the company will put the space plane “through its paces once in-orbit” to certify the spacecraft for future ISS resupply missions.

“As Dream Chaser Tenacity approaches the space station, it will conduct a series of demonstrations to prove attitude control, translational maneuvers, and abort capabilities. After completing the maneuverability demonstration, space station astronauts will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to grapple the spacecraft and dock it to an Earth-facing port,” a NASA press release said of the maiden mission.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation named Robertson an Astronaut Scholar in 2021 while she was attending Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She now works in the Dream Chaser control room on the life-support and thermal-control systems console.

“I’m defining, along with all my counterparts, how we will be flying Dream Chaser — what that even looks like, how we should be handling failures, thinking through as much as we can ahead of time,” Robertson said during the SpaceCom panel discussion.

For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.

Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1

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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Dream Chaser ‘mini shuttle’ testing continues toward May maiden flight

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