SIERRA Space has ramped up its rivalry with SpaceX this week as it unveiled its first Dream Chaser spaceplane with the help of NASA backing.
Unveiled at the NASA Glenn Research testing facility on Thursday, the spaceplane, which combines the best aspects of a rocket and a plane, is hoping to reach orbit before Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship and completely change how we connect Earth to space.
NASA has awarded Sierra Space with a contract to complete missions to the International Space Station as it integrates toward commercial flights.
On Thursday, The U.S. Sun was in attendance at the Dream Chaser Tenacity testing event to hopefully be one of the first to do so soon.
The exclusive event showed off the progress with officials speaking about the overwhelming excitement everyone is feeling as the spaceplane gets close to blasting off.
Dream Chaser Tenacity was perched on top of its Shooting Star cargo module for the very first time for testing to ensure everything went properly with it attached on Thursday.
Tenacity is just one of the Dream Chaser spaceplanes that Sierra Space plans to operate, the second Dreamer Chaser is named Reverance and will eventually deploy the second mission.
The Dream Chaser is a winged spaceplane that was designed to be highly reusable, highly reliable, and focused on turning the vehicle quickly.
It will be used to have a quick turnover of cargo like scientific experiments, supplies, and satellites, from Earth to space for research purposes.
Sierra Space hopes to have crew members aboard the Dream Chasers eventually, but the first missions will be uncrewed.
The design allows it to take off on top of a rocket and land on a runway like an airplane would.
It was also designed to be reusable for 15 missions which is intended to reduce the cost and environmental impact of space travel.
The Dream Chaser fleet was also inspired by the Space Shuttle but has an improved ability to take on the extreme heat and pressure of re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
Officials who spoke at the event on Thursday included Dr. Jimmy Kenyon, director at NASA Glenn Research Center, and Tom Vice, chief executive officer at Sierra Space.
Along with Phil Dempsey, transportation integration manager at the International Space Station, and Dr. Tom Marshburn, former NASA astronaut and chief medical officer for Sierra Space.
Vice confidently said Sierra Space is leading the race to get its spaceplane to orbit with the Dream Chaser Tenacity set to launch sometime in early 2024.
SpaceX is also contracted with NASA and is working to get its Starship in orbit as well.
“Sierra Space working closely with NASA is leading that race, and in fact we a building an end-to-end business platform to accelerate a new space economy in lower orbit and produce breakthrough products to benefit all of humanity here on Earth,” Vice said at the event.
“Space technology companies are racing to build the first commercial on-board destination to make in-space manufacturing a reality.”
Vice commented on how Sierra Space has been working hard for years to resolve tough engineering challenges that come from revolutionizing the way they do things to get to where they are now with the Dream Chaser.
This is truly a historic day, it is an extraordinary day, a day that has been in the making for several years.
We are really excited that this year we enter orbital operations for Nasa.
It is a year that we change how we connect Earth and Space.
Tom Vice, chief executive officer at Sierra Space
Vice called the integration of spaceplanes into space “the most significant industrial revolution in history” and how we are entering the “orbital age.”
“The signs are all around us that we are now living in the orbital age,” Vice said.
“Reusable rockets are lowering launch costs, making trips to low orbit more affordable and rapidly more frequent.
“I’m deeply proud of the Sierra Space team of dreamers, and doers, and engineers, and builders.”
The Sierra Space CEO noted the emotion along the way and how he and his colleagues have dreamed of advancing space technology and research for years.
“It’s a deeply personal perspective, but I know I share it with a lot of my colleagues,” he added.
“This day reminds me and connects me to my childhood growing up in the 1960s and like many engineers from my generation, we were just in awe of watching NASA launch astronauts to the moon.
“Nasa gave me, in fact, it gave thousands of us the confidence, the passion, to dream bold dreams, to do bold things, and instill in me the bold intentions to follow in the footsteps of giants.
“And maybe, just maybe, create a few new footsteps that the future generations can follow.”
“To be here alongside NASA, an iconic organization, a universal symbol of ingenuity, of exploration, and discovery.
“And the Dream Chaser so amply named behind us - well, it brings all of us at Sierra Space a great sense of pride and profound reflection that what we are doing is truly important.
“The work we are doing will change everything, and weave new footsteps for the next generation to follow.”
There is also a heartfelt reasoning behind the names Dream Chaser and Tenacity.
Sierra Space made it clear they have truly chased their dreams during the creation of the Dream Chaser project.
But the perseverance that it took to get it completed is where the name Tenacity comes from for the first spaceplane.
“We are a company that really thinks about dreaming bold dreams, thinking about revolutionizing the way we do things, whether it be revolutionizing transportation, reinventing space stations,” Vice explained.
“And in order to convert bold dreams into bold action and bold doing, it requires an enormous amount of tenacity, and perseverance, and confidence, determination, and passion.”
Sierra Space felt there was no other name better than Tenacity considering the large amount of it that the project took.
“So you see we name our product after these emotional characteristics that get you through the hard times,” Vice said.
“And building Tenacity has been hard.
“There have been a lot of things that we found collectively that didn't always work right the first time.
“And we learned a lot from it and tenacity is what got us through the past six years.
“So there was no other name that was more appropriate than Tenacity.”
The director at NASA Glenn Research Center explained the importance of what the test facility is capable of.
Spacecrafts of all sorts are brought to the facility to undergo testing that puts them under similar circumstances that would occur during launch and while in space.
The Neil Armstrong Test Facility is the world's largest spacecraft acoustic test chamber and spacecraft shaker system.
“Neil Armstrong’s Test Facility is one of NASA Glenn Research Center's most critical assets,” Kenyon explained.
“Here we have some of the world’s largest and most capable simulation and test capabilities to test the harsh environments that space crafts will experience during launch and in-flight.
“The space environments complex is home to a range of large-scale/full-scale test capabilities to allow us to understand the launch and space flight environment.
“It allows us to understand the harsh environment before they actually go to the launch pad - identify issues before it launches.”
“NASA engineers and technicians have been working side by side with Sierra Space to make sure that the tests are conducted safely and to monitor the quality of the data and make sure they get the data they need to support the program.”
The transportation integration manager at the ISS explained how the program is thrilled for Dream Chaser to become operational and for its first arrival at the station.
“The ISS is looking forward to having the Dream Chaser be operational,” Dempsey said.
“Completing the spacecraft testing here at the Armstrong Test Facility is a significant milestone toward readiness for this first mission.
“Our teams and our engineering teams are working with them. We’re really anticipating this first mission.
“Together we have been training our astronauts to look at what it's like to have the Dream Chaser on the ISS and we are doing that while our engineers are working with the Sierra Space team to complete the final phase of the integration for this vehicle.
“NASA knows how difficult spaceflight is, and here at Armstrong, both our teams, we have been partnered with Sierra Space to tell them our experiences and what we know to help them make progress on this vehicle.
“We are truly looking forward to having Sierra Space have an even more robust capability to fly to and from the space station for the rest of the decade.”
The competition is heated as SpaceX's Starship and Sierra Space battle for who will make it to orbit first, SpaceX Community said .
Musk’s SpaceX Starship attempted its first launch in February 2023, but it ended up spinning out of control due to issues with several of its engines and did not make it to space.
SpaceX attempted another launch in November 2023, and it made it to space but the engines ended up failing and it blew up, Reported.
This caused SpaceX to have to build a new rocket and receive a new license from the FAA to fly it.
SpaceX said that it hopes to get the license by February to retry the launch.
“We’re expecting that license to come in February. So it’s looking like [flight] three will occur in February of this year,” SpaceX official Jessica Jensen said in a press conference on January 9.
