(Image credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)
Dream Chaser, Sierra Space’s shuttle-shaped spacecraft, is going through last screening in preparation for its extremely first taste of area. It’s called Tenacity.
Assembly of the spacecraft was finished in early November, after which it was delivered from a Sierra Space center in Louisville, Colorado to NASA’s Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio for ecological screening, according to a Sierra Space declaration
Dream Chaser and Sierra Space’s “Shooting Star” freight module will be stacked in launch setup, then exposed to severe launch vibrations in the Mechanical Vibration Facility, which includes the world’s most effective shaker table.
When prepared, it will release on a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocketIt will take off from Cape Canaveral and go back to Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility runway at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). Vulcan Centaur is presently getting ready for its very first flight in January.
Related: Meet ‘Tenacity’: 1st Dream Chaser area airplane gets a name
Sierra Space did not use a time frame for the launch of Tenacity beyond mentioning it would occur in 2024. Previous reporting recommends the flight might occur as quickly as April 2024.
The Dream Chaser system is created to bring freight to the International Space Station (ISS). Perseverance is slated for a preliminary 7 ISS robotic freight resupply objectives. A team variation will have the ability to bring as much as 7 astronauts.
Sierra Space states it is reinventing area transport with its Dream Chaser platform. The spacecraft can arrive at business runways rather of crashing in the oceans, and can be recycled for a minimum of 15 objectives per system. It likewise boasts completely self-governing operations, and a green, hydrogen peroxide-based propulsion system.
Together with Tenacity, a 2nd Dream Chaser automobile, called Reverence, remains in production.
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