Sierra Space Heralds Giant Leap in Microgravity Research and Manufacturing with Historic Test of Expandable Space Station Technology
25 Julio 2024 - 5:00AM
Business Wire
Company Stands Alone in Conducting Multiple
Validation Stress Tests on Full-Scale, Production-Ready Inflatable
Space Station Platform
Sierra Space to Lead New Generation of
Platforms in Low Earth Orbit, Enabling the “Factories of the
Future” in Microgravity
Sierra Space, a leading commercial space-tech company that is
Building a Platform in Space to Benefit Life on Earth®, announced
today that its expandable space station technology successfully
passed a seventh key validation test, and second full-scale
structural test, at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Alabama. The results herald a giant leap towards
building the world’s first end-to-end business and technology
platform in Low Earth Orbit, enabling humanity to find the answers
to some of the toughest problems faced on Earth.
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Sierra Space team members Shawn Buckley
(L) and Gerard Valle (R) stand high atop the company’s second
full-scale test article on June 18, 2024, at NASA’s Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. (Photo Credit: Andrew
Hughes/Sierra Space)
Completion of the successful Ultimate Burst Pressure test, which
occurred on June 18 in collaboration with ILC Dover (an Ingersoll
Rand Business) and NASA, accelerates Sierra Space’s revolutionary
softgoods technology towards on-orbit operations. Planned for an
initial stand-alone pathfinder mission before the end of the
decade, the technology will also feature as a key element of the
Orbital Reef commercial space station. The test will close out
Milestone #8 for Orbital Reef with Blue Origin under NASA’s
Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program. Please view
video of the burst test here.
“We are 100 percent committed to maintaining U.S. leadership in
Low Earth Orbit. Sierra Space is leading the way with the first
commercial space station to replace the International Space Station
when it is decommissioned and ensure there is no gap in LEO,” said
Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. “Our revolutionary, expandable space
station technology reinvents the space station. Our technology, for
the first time, will enable the right unit economics that will
usher in the full commercialization of space. Our biotech and
industrial partners will utilize our factories of the future to
innovate new products that will massively disrupt terrestrial
markets and benefit life on Earth.”
The latest test by the numbers:
- Company’s second Ultimate Burst Pressure test of a full-size,
inflatable space station structure occurred on June 18
- Test unit stood over 20’ tall and was comparable in size to an
average family home
- The article was 300 m³ in volume, or 1/3rd the volume of the
International Space Station
- Test results exceeded NASA’s recommended x4 safety levels by
22%
- Two 4-ft x 4-ft steel blanking plates were integrated into the
highest loaded cylinder section of the article; both were 50 lbs.
lighter than the ones used in the first full-scale test and
accommodate larger windows
The test article in the company’s historic first full-scale
burst test last December peaked at 77 psi, which well exceeded
(+27%) NASA’s recommended level of 60.8 psi (maximum operating
pressure of 15.2 psi multiplied by a safety factor of four). This
most recent test in June showed similar results – within five
percent of the pressure loading of December’s test article – with
this one reaching 74 psi, exceeding NASA’s 4x safety factor by 22
percent. These back-to-back test results accelerate Sierra Space’s
path to flight certification, verifying scalability for 10
cubic-meter and up to 1,400 cubic-meter structures based on the
company's current softgoods inflatable architecture. Sierra Space
is currently gearing up for a first test of its 500 cubic-meter
space station technology next year.
“No other company is moving at the speed of Sierra Space to
develop actual hardware, stress-tested at full scale, and
demonstrate repeatability. We’ve taken a softgoods system that very
few companies around the world have been able to design, and now we
have consistent, back-to-back results,” said Shawn Buckley, VP of
Earthspace™ Systems, Space Stations, at Sierra Space. “A second
successful full-scale test is an absolute game changer. We now know
it's possible to equal or surpass the total habitable volume of the
entire International Space Station, in a single launch.”
The test article once again included two four-foot by four-foot
blanking plates – metallic structures inserted into the softgoods
shell to emulate a future design component, such as a window,
robotic arm or antenna attachment point. They were 50 pounds
lighter than the ones used in the first full-scale test and
designed to accommodate larger windows.
In the ever-evolving landscape of space exploration and
commercialization, Sierra Space’s Large Integrated Flexible
Environment (LIFE®) technology stands as a pioneering concept that
will reshape how humans live and work in space. LIFE launches on a
conventional rocket and inflates on orbit. The first LIFE product
in the roadmap is a large, three-story structure that is 27 feet in
diameter. It can comfortably sleep four astronauts, with additional
room for science experiments, exercise equipment, a medical center
and Astro Garden® system, which can grow fresh produce for
astronauts on long-duration space missions.
About Sierra Space
Sierra Space is a leading commercial space company at the
forefront of innovation and the commercialization of space in the
Orbital Age®, building an end-to-end business and technology
platform in space to benefit life on Earth. With more than 30 years
and 500 missions of space flight heritage, the company is
reinventing both space transportation with Dream Chaser®, the
world’s only commercial spaceplane, and the future of space
destinations with the company’s inflatable and expandable space
station technology. Using commercial business models, the company
is also delivering orbital services to commercial, DoD and national
security organizations, expanding production capacity to meet the
needs of constellation programs. In addition, Sierra Space builds a
host of systems and subsystems across solar power, mechanics and
motion control, environmental control, life support, propulsion and
thermal control, offering myriad space-as-a-service solutions for
the new space economy.
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Alex Walker, Sierra Space (303) 803-2297 |
alex.walker@sierraspace.com