WASHINGTON — Sierra Space has completed tests of one element of the first Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft ahead of a delayed launch to the International Space Station.
The company announced Sept. 4 that it completed acoustics tests of Shooting Star, the cargo module attached to the Dream Chaser spaceplane. Those tests were carried out at the Space Systems Processing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center, where Dream Chaser is being prepared for launch.
The tests are designed to simulate the conditions that the spacecraft will be exposed to during launch. Sierra Space noted that this was the first time such acoustics tests were performed at that KSC facility, with the company working with Acoustic Research Systems to set up a mobile test configuration there.
Shooting Star provides more than 3,000 kilograms of additional cargo capacity to Dream Chaser, along with a solar power generation system and thrusters. After departing the ISS, Shooting Star is jettisoned from Dream Chaser to burn up in the atmosphere, while the spaceplane glides back to a runway landing for reuse.
“In our first mission, Shooting Star will carry critical science, food and cargo to the International Space Station for NASA, and our cargo modules will continue to play an integral role in bringing supplies to space as we build a low Earth orbit economy through commercial spaceflight,” Tom Vice, chief executive of Sierra Space, said in a statement.
Dream Chaser and Shooting Star are being prepared for their inaugural launch. That was to be on the second Vulcan Centaur launch, but United Launch Alliance announced June 26 that Sierra Space had agreed to “step aside” from that launch out of concerns that Dream Chaser would not be ready in time.
ULA will instead launch a mass simulator on that mission, scheduled for as soon as this month from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. At the time of the announcement, Sierra Space said it was on track to fly Dream Chaser by the end of the year.
The company has not announced a new launch date or vehicle for the inaugural Dream Chaser mission. Sierra Space did note in the release that the acoustics tests were designed to simulate conditions on a Vulcan launch.
