Commercial space company, Sierra Space, has announced the successful completion of the initial phase of environmental testing on the Dream Chaser spaceplane at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

Over the past month, the Sierra Space Dream Chaser and its cargo companion underwent rigorous vibration testing while stacked in launch configuration inside the Mechanical Vibration Facility at the NASA complex. In readiness for launch from Kennedy Space Center, the tests exposed the vehicles to the intense conditions of launch vibrations using the world’s most powerful spacecraft shaker table.

“We are coming out of years of development, years of hard work and years of resolving tough engineering challenges that come from revolutionary new ways of doing things,” said Sierra Space CEO, Tom Vice. “This phase of development illustrates how Dream Chaser and the Shooting Star cargo module will handle the mechanical rigors of launch. This is the year that we transition from development and enter orbital operations – it is the year that changes how we connect space and earth.”

“Completion of vibration testing of the vehicles in the launch configuration is a huge milestone for Sierra Space and the Dream Chaser program,” said Jake Ingram, director of programmes for Dream Chaser DC-100. “We successfully applied the environment specified by the launch provider, validated primary structure modal responses and verified vehicle functionality before and after the vibration test sequence.”

Key accomplishments in this first critical phase of pre-flight testing included: the completion of Sine Vibration Testing (in all three axes or directions), a Separation Shock Test that simulates the separation of the Dream Chaser from Shooting Star and a test that involved deploying the spaceplane’s wings. These tests evaluated Dream Chaser’s performance under the stresses of launch, operation in orbit and ability to communicate with the International Space Station (ISS).

‘Joint Test #3,’ a critical phase in the testing process, represented an integrated assessment of the completed system in a flight-like configuration. After its ride to space atop United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, Dream Chaser separates from the rocket fairing, deploys its wings from a folded position and flies semi-autonomously to the International Space Station. Joint Test #3 was a comprehensive evaluation focused on the software interface between the vehicle and the ISS to ensure the seamless functionality of the command and data handling.

Following these critical test phases, the Shooting Star cargo module was de-mated from Dream Chaser and transported from the Space Environments Complex (SEC) to the In-Space Propulsion (ISP) facility. Soon, Dream Chaser will be transported to the ISP facility to join the cargo module, where the two spacecraft will begin thermal vacuum testing, a crucial step in the journey towards the launchpad and another milestone in Sierra Space’s mission to redefine the future of space commercialisation.

www.sierraspace.com