The Dream Chaser spaceplane is the first-ever winged commercial spacecraft designed to expand access to space and enable international collaboration. The first vehicle in Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser fleet of uncrewed DC-100 cargo spacecraft is named Tenacity.

Originally, Tenacity’s first flight was planned as a resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS), delivering thousands of pounds of cargo to astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory. However, Sierra Space and NASA recently agreed to change course. Instead, the maiden mission will now be a free-flyer demonstration, targeted for late 2026.

This demonstration will allow Sierra Space to validate Dream Chaser’s performance in orbit, reentry, and runway landing before it begins cargo delivery flights. NASA teams at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Johnson Space Center in Houston, along with Sierra Space’s Mission Control in Louisville, Colorado, will jointly monitor the flight.

Under the original plan, Dream Chaser would have approached the ISS and paused about 38 feet (11.5 meters) away. At that point, a crew member on the station would have used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to grapple a fixture on Dream Chaser’s cargo module, called Shooting Star™, and attach it to an Earth-facing port on the station’s Unity or Harmony module.

The spacecraft was designed to remain berthed for up to 45 days, supplying astronauts with critical cargo like food, science experiments, and equipment. When its mission was complete, Dream Chaser would have been uninstalled using Canadarm2, then departed for reentry.

Once undocked, the spaceplane could land back on Earth in as little as 11–15 hours, carrying home more than 3,500 pounds of cargo and experiment samples — while disposing of 8,700 pounds of trash inside the expendable Shooting Star cargo module.

Although the first flight will no longer dock with the ISS, Dream Chaser is still contracted under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) program to provide at least seven ISS cargo missions.

On those future flights, Dream Chaser is expected to deliver over 7,800 pounds of supplies on its first ISS trip, and eventually as much as 11,500 pounds on later missions. Thanks to its unique lifting-body design and ability to land on commercial runways, Dream Chaser will be able to return time-sensitive experiments and cargo with gentle reentry forces — less than 1.5 g’s — enabling faster science recovery than capsule landings at sea.

At 30 feet (9 meters) long, Tenacity is about one-quarter the size of NASA’s retired space shuttle orbiters. In 2017, Sierra Space successfully tested Dream Chaser in an atmospheric glide flight at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, where it autonomously deployed its landing gear and touched down safely.

With its Shooting Star cargo module, Dream Chaser can carry up to 12,000 pounds of pressurized and unpressurized cargo to low-Earth orbit. Its reusability, rapid turnaround, and flexible mission profile position it not only as a NASA resupply vehicle, but also as a commercial and national security asset for the future of space operations.

Courtesy of Sierra Space and NASA.

United Launch Alliance's brand new launch vehicle, Vulcan Centaur is a two-stage-to-orbit, heavy-lift launch vehicle. It will replace both of ULA's existing launchers (Atlas V and Delta IV Heavy) which are retiring.

Specs

Height: 61.6 m (202 ft)

Diameter: 5.4 m (18 ft)

Mass: 546,700 kg (1,205,300 lb)

Stages: 2 and 0, 2, 4 or 6 boosters

Capacity

Payload to low Earth orbit (28.7°): Mass: 27,200 kg (60,000 lb)

Payload to geostationary transfer orbit (27.0°): Mass 14,400 kg (31,700 lb)

Payload to geostationary orbit: Mass 7,200 kg (15,900 lb)

Payload to trans-lunar injection: Mass 12,100 kg (26,700 lb)

On Monday, January 8th, 2024, United Launch Alliance successfully launched the maiden flight of its new Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The new launcher is powered by Blue Origin's BE-4 engines and marks the first time the Bezos-owned company's hardware has flown an orbital mission.

United Launch Alliance has a proven and uninterrupted record of launching many of NASA's flagship science missions like the Perseverance Mars rover, the Parker Solar Probe, and sample return mission OSIRIS-REx. Just to name a few.

ULA Chief Tory Bruno remarked on the seemingly perfect maiden launch by noting that the only problem that arose was a broken coffee machine in launch control. It was fixed by a nearby rocket scientist before liftoff.

Praise came from across the industry, and included was a congratulatory reply on X from Bruno's nemesis SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Many expect Vulcan to provide some competition in the Falcon-dominated launch market.

Configurations

Vulcan is available in four standard offering configurations including zero, two, four, and six solid rocket booster (SRB) variants.

Payload Fairings

The spacecraft is encapsulated in a 5.4-m- (17.7-ft-) diameter payload fairing (PLF), a sandwich composite structure made with a vented aluminum-honeycomb core and graphite-epoxy face sheets. The bisector (two-piece shell) PLF encapsulates the spacecraft. The payload attach fitting (PAF) is a similar sandwich composite structure creating the mating interface from the spacecraft to the second stage and payload fairing. The PLF separates using a debris-free horizontal and vertical separation system with spring packs and frangible joint assembly. The payload fairing comes in the 15.5-m (51-ft) standard and 21.3-m (70-ft) long configurations.

Multi-Manifest
With multi-manifest, two or more spacecraft are integrated into a launch vehicle — optimizing mass to orbit and enabling missions. Depending on the size of the spacecraft, multi-manifesting on a Vulcan rocket can be done in several ways. The Aft Bulkhead Carrier (ABC) interfaces at the aft end of the Centaur upper stage and can carry up to 24U CubeSats weighing 80 kg each. The Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA Ring) is located between the upper stage and the primary payload and can accommodate 4-6 payload modules weighing up to 318 kg each. Finally, for small satellites exceeding the mass of an ESPA capability, the Multi-Payload Canister System is a load-bearing separating canister that can be utilized to enclose an aft small satellite while supporting a forward traditional large satellite.

Main Engine

Booster propulsion is provided by a pair of BE-4 engines, manufactured by Blue Origin.

Solid Rocket Boosters

Vulcan integrates up to six Northrop Grumman Graphite Epoxy Motor (GEM) 63XL Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). They are constructed out of a graphite-epoxy composite with the throttle profile designed into the propellant grain.

Upper Stage

Vulcan will rely on two RL10C engines to power its second stage. Logging a record of nearly 400 successful flights and nearly 700 firings in space, RL10 engines, manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne, harness the power of high-energy liquid hydrogen. The RL10 boasts a precision control system and restart capability to accurately place payloads into orbit.

Courtesy of Jenny Hautmann for Supercluster

Space Launch Complex 41 (SLC-41) is a significant launch site located at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) in Florida. Originally built in the 1960s, SLC-41 was designed to support the Titan III and Titan IV rocket programs. Throughout its history, the pad has been used for various missions, including the deployment of military and reconnaissance satellites. A notable launch from SLC-41 was the Cassini spacecraft mission, which began its journey to Saturn in 1997.

In the early 2000s, SLC-41 was repurposed to support the Atlas V rocket, operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA). This transition involved extensive upgrades to the pad’s infrastructure and the installation of new ground support equipment to accommodate the Atlas V. These modifications ensured that SLC-41 could meet the requirements of modern space missions.

Under ULA’s management, SLC-41 has hosted a range of important launches, including the Mars Science Laboratory mission, which successfully landed the Curiosity rover on Mars in August 2012, and the launch of GPS III satellites, enhancing global positioning capabilities. The pad has also supported Boeing's CST-100 Starliner capsule, which is part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. The Starliner capsule, designed to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station, has been launched from SLC-41 to support crewed missions.

Looking to the future, SLC-41 is set to support ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket. The Vulcan Centaur is intended to replace the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, marking a new era in ULA’s launch capabilities with enhanced performance and cost-efficiency. The pad’s infrastructure will be further updated to accommodate this next-generation rocket.