Spaceflight Now reports, “Sierra Space is getting one step closer to finally seeing its Dream Chaser spaceplane reach the launch pad. The spacecraft completed its environmental testing at NASA’s Armstrong Test Facility last week … Sierra Space is now preparing to load up Dream Chaser and Shooting Star for shipment down to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Once it arrives, teams will finish adding the thermal protection tiles and perform additional checkouts, like acoustic testing.”
Full Story (Spaceflight Now)
Tag: ISS
Finish Line for Dream Chaser Now in Sight
Ars Techica reports, “There is still some work to do to prepare Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane for its first mission, but the company says the winged resupply craft for the ISS will soon ship to its launch site in Florida. The Dream Chaser will take off on top of a ULA Vulcan rocket to head for the space station. A spokesperson for Sierra Space told Ars the spaceplane’s launch is scheduled for the third or fourth quarter of this year.”
Full Story (Ars Technica)
US Space Force Turns to Commercial Satellites to Meet Demand for Global Insights
Space News reports, “A U.S. Space Force online marketplace that taps into commercial satellite data has executed around $8 million worth of contracts over the past four months. About 25 defense, intelligence, and civilian federal agencies are now buying data and analytic services from the Space Force-run marketplace, said Col. Richard Kniseley, senior materiel leader of the Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office.”
Full Story (Space News)
Russia Launches One-man, Two-woman Crew to Space Station
CBS News reports, “Two days after a rare last-second launch abort, a Russian Soyuz spacecraft blasted off Saturday on a flight to the International Space Station, carrying two short-duration crew members and a NASA astronaut bound for a six-month tour of duty.” The Soyuz is expected to catch up with the space station Monday, “moving in for docking at a port on the station’s Earth-facing Prichal module at 11:09 a.m. local time.”
Full Story (CBS News)
SpaceX’s Crew-8 Dragon Capsule Arrives at ISS
SPACE reports, “SpaceX’s Crew-8 astronaut mission arrived at the International Space Station early Tuesday morning (March 5).” The Dragon capsule docked with the orbiting outpost at 2:28 a.m. EST, as the station soared “above the central North Atlantic just east of New Foundland at the time.”
Full Story (SPACE)
Video
SpaceX/NASA – SpaceX Crew 8 – Rendezvous & Docking ISS – March 5, 2024
(VideoFromSpace; YouTube)
ISS Air Leak Poses No Danger to Crew According to Russian Space Officials
AP News reports Russian space officials have acknowledged a continuing air leak from the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS), but say “it poses no danger to its crew.” Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, said the leak and crew are being monitored by specialists.
Full Story (Associated Press)
Industry Seeks Resources, Policy Changes to Support ISS Transition
Space News reports “Executives with two companies developing commercial space stations called on NASA and Congress to take fiscal and policy steps to avoid a space station gap they feared could cede leadership in low Earth orbit to China.”
Full Story (Space News)
NASA Previews Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser Demo Mission
Aviation Week reported that NASA has “offered a preview of Sierra Space’s reusable Dream Chaser resupply demonstration mission to the International Space Station (ISS), planned for 2024.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
NASA Celebrating 25th Anniversary of ISS
ABC News reports, “NASA and its astronauts are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the International Space Station being in orbit.” On Wednesday, the agency “broadcast a live conversation between the Expedition 70 crew and NASA Associate Administrator Robert Cabana and Joel Montalbano, space station program manager.” The space station “has been continuously occupied for more than 23 years, ‘testing technologies, performing science, and developing the skills needed to explore farther from Earth,’ NASA said in a press release. According to NASA, the station has been visited by 273 people from 21 countries and has conducted more than 3,300 [investigations].”
Full Story (ABC News)
China Makes Progress on Engine Program for Super Heavy Rocket
Space News reports, “China is progressing with a program to develop full-flow staged-combustion-cycle methane engines to power its reusable Long March 9 super heavy-lift launcher.” Work to develop “engines producing 200 tons of thrust includes progress on overall design and components. Testing includes firing prototype and scaled components such as igniters, gas generators and thrust chambers.”
Full Story (Space News)