Dream Chaser completes key tests ahead of first flight

WASHINGTON — Sierra Space has completed key testing milestones for its Dream Chaser vehicle as the company explores both civil and national security missions for the spaceplane.

The company announced Nov. 13 that the first Dream Chaser vehicle, Tenacity, completed electromagnetic interference and compatibility testing at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

“We completed the electrical system closeout and verified that, as we operate the vehicle, we’re not interfering with ourselves or Dream Chaser’s launch vehicle,” said Dan Polis, vice president of engineering solutions at Sierra Space, in an interview.

The company also conducted tow tests, where a truck pulled the spaceplane at high speeds at Space Florida’s Launch and Landing Facility, the former shuttle landing runway at KSC, to test runway landing operations.

The tow tests verified the closed-loop performance of the spaceplane’s navigation systems, Polis said. They also confirmed that the vehicle can communicate both in line-of-sight mode and through NASA’s TDRS network to the company’s control center in Colorado.

The next major test will take place in December with launch acoustics testing of the vehicle. Polis noted the company has previously tested the separate Shooting Star cargo module.

Sierra Space has been developing Dream Chaser for years to provide cargo transportation services for the International Space Station. The company received a Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 contract from NASA in 2016 that included seven missions to the ISS.

However, in September the company announced NASA had agreed to modify that CRS-2 contract to cover just a single flight planned for late 2026. That mission will not go to the ISS but instead test the vehicle in low Earth orbit. NASA, under the revised contract, retains the option to order additional cargo flights.

Sierra Space said at the time it was focusing on potential national security applications for Dream Chaser, but did not disclose specifics. In announcing the latest tests, the company said that after completing acoustics tests it will ship Dream Chaser back to Colorado, where “modifications for national security applications will be explored and performed.”

Polis did not discuss those applications but said other vehicle testing will also take place in Colorado. That includes hot-fire tests of Dream Chaser’s propulsion system and “day in the life” testing involving integration of hardware and software. It will then return to Florida for final launch preparations.

With no plans to go to the ISS on this demo mission, some elements of the test program will change. “We will gear our verification so there are some pivots away from things we were doing for a station-first mission, and pivot toward our new potential customers,” he said.

Tenacity arrived at KSC a year and a half ago for what Sierra Space described as final vehicle testing. The company had planned to launch Dream Chaser on the second flight of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket in late 2024, but agreed in June 2024 to give up its slot so ULA, under schedule pressure to certify the rocket for national security missions, could perform the launch before the end of the year.

Polis said there was no specific issue that delayed Dream Chaser’s launch. “As with any complex vehicle, we’ve worked through non-conformances as we get to final vehicle integration,” he said. “I wouldn’t say there was one thing.”

Another factor, he said, was “getting mutual alignment with NASA” on the future of the vehicle “to really be able to exploit the vehicle’s flexibility for multi-platform applications.”

While Sierra Space is emphasizing national security uses, the company is keeping open the option of using Dream Chaser to support the ISS or future commercial space stations, known as commercial low Earth orbit destinations, or CLDs. “NASA is a critical customer,” he said. “We ultimately want to be their service provider after this first flight, and through their CLD partners, and so we have an eye on all of those requirements.”

“This is a multi-purpose vehicle, and we see it fitting both national security and civil space,” he said. “NASA has been a great partner. We believe the contract realignment really showed their commitment to the vehicle.”