Brand New American Spaceplane Enters Final Stretch to Launch

For quite a long time, ever since the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011, NASA relied on its Russian partner to get its crews and cargo up to the International Space Station (ISS). And then a series of private companies came along, and changed everything for the better.

The favorite means of American astronaut transportation these days is the SpaceX Crew Dragon, but soon the Boeing-made Starliner will do that too. These two spaceships are also capable of carrying supplies, thus easing the load on the cargo version of the Dragon or the Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft normally used for these purposes.

But soon an even more exciting spacecraft will join the fleet, one that blends the looks and abilities of the defunct Space Shuttle with the capabilities of a cargo truck that pulls a trailer behind it.

The spacecraft I'm talking about is the Sierra Space Dream Chaser, a spaceplane that's been in the works for years and presently fast approaches the moment when it will fly its first mission to the ISS.

The upcoming lifting body is based on a spacecraft design NASA was looking at back in the 1960s, the so-called HL-20. For now, despite looking like a proper spacecraft (an aircraft shape instead of the capsule design all the others are using), the Dream Chaser is being developed as an uncrewed machine.

Plans are to make the spaceship a heavy-lifter for the space station's needs. When it is fully operational and in its most potent incarnation, the 30-foot (nine-meter) long and 15-foot (4.5-meter) wide spaceship should be capable of carrying a total of 11,500 pounds (5,200 kg) of cargo.

That relatively large amount of stuff is divided between the Dream Chaser's own payload capacity and that of an attached cargo module called the Shooting Star, which can ensure both pressurized and unpressurized transport.

But there's still a long way to go until then. The first mission, initially scheduled to depart in April but obviously pushed to an undetermined date, will see the Dream Chaser lift a total of 7,800 pounds (3,500 kg) inside the Shooting Star.

Last we heard of the Dream Chaser (which in its first incarnation is called Tenacity) was back in February, when NASA and Sierra Space conducted vibration testing and low ambient pressures and temperatures. These procedures were meant to simulate the stresses the ship will be subjected to between the moment it launches and until it lands, Space Shuttle-style.

Last week the Tenacity was transported from Ohio to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, joining the Shooting Star module already on site. It is here where engineers will put the ship through its final test, prelaunch processing, and final integration.

What's left on the agenda for rocket scientists is to perform testing for acoustic and electromagnetic interference, compatibility, and thermal protection system. When all that is done, crews will move to payload integration.

The Tenacity, which is the first in a planned fleet of several such spaceplanes, will lift off at an yet to be determined date on top of an United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The flight will not only be used to carry supplies to the ISS, but also to put the Dream Chaser through its paces in what seems to be a very carefully planned series of tests. To validate the vehicle's systems, far-field and near-field procedures will be performed, attitude control and translational maneuvers will be run, and abort capabilities verified.

If everything checks out, a robotic arm on the station, the Canadarm2, will be used the catch the spacecraft and dock it at either the Unity or Harmony modules, on the Earth-facing port.

Tenacity will stay there for up to 45 days, and it will then head down to land at the Kennedy Launch and Landing Facility. Only the spaceplane will return, as the Shooting Star module is meant to be jettisoned and burn in the atmosphere.

The ship will later be moved into a facility for inspection, offloading of whatever cargo it will bring back, and to start getting it ready for its next mission. That's because the ship, like all the others in its family, has been designed to be reusable. NASA plans to conduct at least seven missions with it.

If these flights go according to plan, the agency intends to increase the ship's mission duration to as much as 75 days spent in space at a time, and take its cargo capacity to the upper limit which is, as said, 11,500 pounds (5,200 kg).