Its foldable wings and fuselage are covered in custom-fitted ceramic tiles to shield the spacecraft’s composite structure from the scorching heat of atmospheric reentry as it flies back to Earth.
Inside the spacecraft, workers are installing the final ducts for the environmental control system, which will make the pressurized compartment within Dream Chaser livable for astronauts at the International Space Station.
Across the hall from the production floor, Sierra Space has set up a mission control room, where engineers will monitor and command the spacecraft when it’s in orbit.
Within a few weeks, the Dream Chaser spaceplane, named “Tenacity” and carrying the serial number DC-101, will be out the door on the way to a NASA facility in Ohio for a battery of tests to prove it can survive the rigors of spaceflight.
Tom Vice, Sierra Space’s CEO and a former executive at Northrop Grumman, said engineers have intentionally left some of those components off Dream Chaser for its next round of tests.
Nevertheless, the company stands alone in its persistence in an industry that has recently prioritized capsule-shaped spacecraft or outside-the-box designs like SpaceX’s reusable Starship rocket.
The original article contains 599 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Its foldable wings and fuselage are covered in custom-fitted ceramic tiles to shield the spacecraft’s composite structure from the scorching heat of atmospheric reentry as it flies back to Earth.
Inside the spacecraft, workers are installing the final ducts for the environmental control system, which will make the pressurized compartment within Dream Chaser livable for astronauts at the International Space Station.
Across the hall from the production floor, Sierra Space has set up a mission control room, where engineers will monitor and command the spacecraft when it’s in orbit.
Within a few weeks, the Dream Chaser spaceplane, named “Tenacity” and carrying the serial number DC-101, will be out the door on the way to a NASA facility in Ohio for a battery of tests to prove it can survive the rigors of spaceflight.
Tom Vice, Sierra Space’s CEO and a former executive at Northrop Grumman, said engineers have intentionally left some of those components off Dream Chaser for its next round of tests.
Nevertheless, the company stands alone in its persistence in an industry that has recently prioritized capsule-shaped spacecraft or outside-the-box designs like SpaceX’s reusable Starship rocket.
The original article contains 599 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!