World’s First Commercial Spaceplane Faces Crucial Test at NASA

Passant Rabie
Thu, November 2, 2023 

The spaceplane is being prepped so it can be shipped to a NASA facility in Ohio.

Dream Chaser, built by Sierra Space, is being prepped for transport to a NASA facility in Ohio, where it will undergo a series of tests to make sure the spaceplane can survive its heated reentry through Earth’s atmosphere. Starting these tests is crucial, demonstrating Dream Chaser’s readiness for flights and potentially transforming commercial space travel.

Sierra Space is hoping to see its spaceplane fly to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2024 as part of a contract with NASA. The first commercial spaceplane is currently at the company’s facility in Louisville, Colorado, and will soon make the roughly 60 mile (96 kilometer) journey to the Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, local media outlet Denver 7 reported.

Dream Chaser is designed to fly to low Earth orbit, carrying cargo and passengers on a smooth ride to pitstops such as the ISS. The spaceplane will launch from Earth atop a rocket, and is designed to survive atmospheric reentry and perform runway landings on the surface upon its return. Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser is designed with foldable wings that fully unfurl once the spaceplane is in flight, generating power through solar arrays. The spaceplane is also equipped with heat shield tiles to protect it from the high temperatures of atmospheric reentry.

Unlike Virgin Galactic’s suborbital spaceplane, Sierra Space designed Dream Chaser to reach orbit and stay there for six months. The U.S. Space Force has its own spaceplane, which wrapped up a mysterious two-and-a-half-year mission in low Earth orbit in November 2022.

The commercial spaceflight industry may not be too focused on spaceplanes as companies race to design fully reusable rockets, but spaceplanes do have an advantage of a smooth landing on their way back down to Earth. In terms of those exact advantages, spaceplanes offer safety, efficiency, operational flexibility, and potential for future commercial opportunities.

For its debut flight, Tenacity will ride atop United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. The spaceplane is scheduled for the rocket’s second mission, although Vulcan is yet to fly for the first time due to several delays. The spaceplane is tentatively slated for an April launch, but that still depends on the rocket’s first test flight.

In the future, Sierra Space also wants to launch crewed Dream Chaser missions to its own space station, as opposed to the Orbital Reef space station, which it is designing in collaboration with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin—a relationship that appears to be in doubt.
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Dream Chaser Spaceplane Ready for NASA Tests
Victor Tangermann
Thu, November 2, 2023 a


Chase Dreams

Colorado-based space startup Sierra Space has made considerable progress on its Dream Chaser spaceplane, a sleek spacecraft designed to glide back to the ground after screaming through space.

As Ars Technica reports, the company is now adding the finishing touches to the craft, including a pressurized compartment that can house astronauts as they travel to the International Space Station.

But before it can do that, its big test — like SpaceX's Dragon capsule before it — will be to deliver cargo to the orbital outpost after launching on top of a rocket. Returning to Earth, it'll careen through the atmosphere before using its wings to safely make its way to a landing strip back on the ground.

All told, it's an exciting new chapter in the history of spaceflight that harkens back to the design of NASA's now long-retired Space Shuttle.
Plane Jane

Though it's making significant progress, Sierra still has plenty of work to do before it can send its Dream Chaser, dubbed "Tenacity," into orbit.

The plane will first be shipped to a NASA facility in Ohio to make sure it can survive the extreme conditions during launch and in outer space.

"We’re almost done with everything," Angie Wise, Sierra's chief safety officer, told Ars. "We’re finishing all the closeout panels. We’re essentially getting it ready for shipping."

"We’ve checked out the landing gear," she added. "We’re going to put everything back in, stow it, and then move it onto the (transport) fixture and get it out of here," referring to the company's headquarters outside of Denver, Colorado.

It may not be the only commercial spaceplane in the works, but unlike Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spaceplane, Sierra is aiming for actual orbital capabilities. It's also considerably smaller than NASA's Space Shuttle, at roughly a quarter the size.

According to Ars, Dream Chaser is designed to deliver up to 12,000 pounds of cargo to the ISS. It can also jettison unwanted cargo at the end of its mission to have it burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

But when we'll see the spacecraft actually launch into space remains to be seen. Only if it can survive a gauntlet of extreme temperatures inside a vacuum at NASA's Ohio test facilities will it be shipped out to the Space Coast for its maiden voyage.

Sierra is hoping to complete its first uncrewed test flight by April of next year. But that's an ambitious timeline, especially considering the rocket that will take it into orbit, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket, has yet to complete its own first test flight.

More on Sierra Space: Experimental Inflatable Space Station Segment Explodes Violently