Sierra Space will send at least six uncrewed cargo missions to the ISS using Dream Chaser. All flights will launch
The contract concluded between NASA and Sierra Space,provides for the delivery to the ISS in 2024 of equipment for various scientific missions. NASA is currently delivering cargo to the ISS using SpaceX and Northrop Grumman spacecraft. At the same time, the first of them can use the capsule to deliver cargo back to earth, and the second one works in one-way mode, the remains of the rocket burn up in the atmosphere. The Dream Chaser shuttle will expand the possibilities of interaction with the ISS.
The Dream Chaser space plane. Image: Sierra Nevada Corp., NASA
Dream Chaser is an American reusablespace plane. The company is developing two versions of this ship at once: manned and autonomous. It is assumed that the manned version will be able to carry up to seven crew members and a payload, and the unmanned version will be able to return up to 1,750 kg of cargo to Earth and destroy up to 3.2 tons of garbage in the atmosphere.
Despite the conclusion of a contract with NASA, the firstorbital tests of the new system are only scheduled for 2023. According to the company, in January of this year, the company's ship will make a test flight to low Earth orbit, dock with the ISS and return to Earth.
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On the cover: an artistic illustration of the Dream Chaser spacecraft docking with the ISS. Image: Sierra Nevada Space Systems, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons