Nose-Up Dream Chaser Spaceplane Gets the Shakes Ahead of Historic Mission

The Dream Chaser is the latest in a series of spacecraft designed by private companies to serve, first and foremost, the needs of the International Space Station (ISS), but also other space endeavors of various organizations.

Unlike the ships designed by others (like SpaceX's Dragon and the Boeing Starliner), which come across as simple capsules the likes of which we used to get back in the early days of space exploration, the Dream Chaser has proper spacecraft looks, with a lifting body design and short and stocky wings to either side.

That's because the thing pretty much picks up from where the HL-20, a spacecraft the American space agency was researching back in the 1960s, at the height of the original space race, left off. And it kind of has a lot of Space Shuttle vibes, too.

As it stands, the Dream Chaser is scheduled to lift off and reach the ISS later in April. It will travel to the station loaded, meaning it will move with the cargo module called Shooting Star attached, in its turn packing supplies for the station.

We've seen the spacecraft in its full glory several times before, but most of the time in renderings. The February 1 media event gave us the first true look at the Dream Chaser standing nose-up on a pad, 55 feet (17 meters) tall, but most importantly fully stacked, meaning in the configuration it will use to launch into space.

The spaceplane is at the Armstrong Test Facility not solely to be shown to the media, but to undergo crucial testing to see if it can survive the hardships of going to orbit, but also the extremes of space.

The facility NASA operates in Ohio is home to the world's most powerful shaker system. That's a piece of hardware meant to rattle spacecraft to their core, in a bid to simulate the vibrations they will experience during launch and re-entry. The Dream Chaser has already gone through it, and nothing fell off.

Now that this crucial step is out of the way, NASA will move the plane in a huge vacuum chamber, this time in a bid to simulate the coldness and emptiness of space, complete with low pressure, low temperatures, and dynamic solar heating.

If all goes well the ship will eventually move to the Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida for launch. It will reach the pad installed in the fairing of a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Vulcan Centaur rocket, the same kind that was used for the first time in January to launch the failed Peregrine lunar lander.

Dream Chaser's first mission will see it perform all sorts of tests to validate its systems. On approach to the ISS, it will perform far-field and near-field procedures to test its attitude control, translational maneuvers, and abort capabilities.

The ship will travel to the station complete with the cargo module, which will be captured by a robotic arm on the ISS and docked at either the Unity or Harmony modules. Although the flight is a test one, NASA is actually using it to transport cargo to the station.

When fully operational the Dream Chaser will be capable of carrying to orbit as much as 11,500 pounds (5,200 kg) of cargo. For this first run it will not be, of course, loaded to capacity, but it will still transport 7,800 pounds (3,500 kg) of supplies for the astronauts presently floating in space.

The ship will spend a total of 45 days attached to the ISS during this first trip, almost half of the time it is technically capable of withstanding in space. Upon return, it will land in an aircraft-like manner at the Kennedy Space Center's Launch and Landing Facility, just like the Space Shuttle used to do.

The Dream Chaser has been envisioned as a reusable spacecraft that can stay in space for as much as 75 days. A single example could technically be used for as much as 15 times (the cargo module, however, is disposable and can only be used once), making it a solid competitor for what SpaceX is presently offering.

Sierra Space is also working on a crewed version of the spaceplane, but there is no word yet on when we'll get to see people flying to space inside this thing.

Before we learn of Dream Chaser's next moves, make sure to have a look at how the ship felt up close and personal over in Ohio. autoevolution was there for the media presentation, and you can have a look at how the entire experience felt like right here.