NASA and Sierra Area are making ready for the primary flight of the corporate’s Dream Chaser spacecraft to the Worldwide Area Station. Dream Chaser and its companion cargo module, known as Capturing Star, arrived at NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio, for environmental testing, scheduled to begin in mid-December, forward of its first flight, scheduled for the primary half of 2024.
The Neil Armstrong Check Facility, a part of NASA’s Glenn Analysis Middle in Cleveland, is house to a number of check services, together with the Area Environments Complicated and the In-Area Propulsion Facility, each stops for Dream Chaser. The advanced is house to the Mechanical Vibration Facility, which topics check articles to the rigorous situations of launch.
Whereas at Armstrong, the Dream Chaser winged spacecraft will likely be stacked atop its Capturing Star cargo module on the vibration desk to expertise vibrations like these throughout launch and re-entry to the Earth’s ambiance.
Following vibration testing, Dream Chaser will likely be moved to the propulsion facility for thermal vacuum testing. Dream Chaser will likely be positioned in a vacuum and uncovered to low ambient pressures, low-background temperatures, and replicated dynamic photo voltaic heating, which simulates the surroundings the spacecraft will encounter throughout its mission. This facility is the one one able to testing full-scale, higher stage rockets and rocket engines below simulated area situations and conducting altitude sizzling hearth.
After completion of testing at Armstrong, Dream Chaser will likely be shipped to NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle in Florida for additional launch preparations, presently scheduled for liftoff within the first half of 2024.
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