SANDUSKY, Ohio — At NASA's Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, a spaceplane is undergoing testing ahead of its first launch later this year. It's the first of Sierra Space's "Dream Chaser" spaceplanes, which will be resupplying the International Space Station.
Dream Chaser has been contracted by NASA to deliver cargo to the ISS, as well as bring back research being done up there. The spaceplane is reusable — designed for multiple trips — and will travel to space with a cargo pod called "Shooting Star."
In space, its wings will expand, and when it returns to earth, it will land on a runway — much like an airplane.
At a press conference Thursday morning in Sandusky, representatives from NASA and Sierra Space described Dream Chaser as a step forward in the way we access space.
"The ability to fly from the earth's surface to 250 miles above our head, and to bring people and cargo back to a runway anywhere in the world, that's what you're witnessing today," Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice said. "It's not just a spaceplane; it’s the future in which how, as human beings, we're going to transport to and from space."
According to Phil Dempsey of NASA, the Dream Chaser will deliver more than 7,800 pounds of cargo in its first 45-day mission to the ISS, with the possibility of delivering even more in the future.
"The success of this contract's been critical to the research that we've been able to perform on the International Space Station," Dempsey added.
Currently, the spaceplane is in Sandusky undergoing tests to ensure it's able to endure conditions in space and through launch and landing. Vice spoke highly of NASA's Northeast Ohio team.
"Glenn Research Center [in Cleveland], it’s just unique — just really bright people, bright engineers, and you combine that with this facility and the willingness of this team to jump in and work collaboratively, I couldn't imagine [we could have] done it anywhere else," he said. "I don’t think we would have been successful, frankly."
"The capabilities we provide are going be critical to any sort of a space mission — whether it's crewed or un-crewed, whether it's cargo, it's commercial, it's NASA," Dr. Jimmy Kenyon, director of NASA Glenn Research Center, concurred. "We're just excited about the future of space here, right here in Ohio."
Both Vice and Kenyon spoke of the future of the commercial space industry, with Vice referring to this time as the next major industrial revolution.
"We're going to have commercial companies building and operating space stations in low earth orbit, and this is just part of growing and supporting that industry to get going," Kenyon explained.
"We just need to go 250 miles above our head, and that unlocks a brand new environment," Vice said. "And that environment will unlock cures to oncology, longevity, next generation of energy."