Sierra Space, a leading commercial aerospace company and defense technologist building a platform in space to benefit life on Earth®, today announced the successful completion of acoustic testing on its Shooting Star® cargo module at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, bringing the spacecraft a significant step closer to launch readiness. The test, the first of its kind conducted at the Space Systems Processing Facility (SSPF), replicated the intense acoustic stresses Shooting Star must withstand during a Vulcan Centaur rocket launch to the International Space Station (ISS).
During the Direct Field Acoustic Test (DFAN), the test team placed stacks of specially built speakers—each a highly sophisticated acoustic device—in 21-foot-tall columns around the spacecraft. Their goal was to test whether Shooting Star’s structural elements could withstand the acoustic environment of a launch on a Vulcan Centaur rocket. Over a four-day period, test engineers bombarded the spacecraft with a controlled sound field 10,000x the volume of a typical rock concert, simulating the sonic intensity of a launch. Shooting Star withstood acoustic levels of over 140 dB for several minutes at a time, proving its airworthiness.
“Our innovative Shooting Star cargo module offers the ability to provide additional capacity, flexibility and power for a wide range of missions,” said Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space. “In our first mission, Shooting Star will carry critical science, food and cargo to the International Space Station for NASA, and our cargo modules will continue to play an integral role in getting supplies to space as we build a low-Earth orbit economy through commercial spaceflight.”
Shooting Star will be attached to the back of Sierra Space's Dream Chaser®, adding 7,000 lbs. of additional cargo capacity to the spaceplane, while solar arrays and boosters will provide power and additional thrust to both spacecraft. The acoustic test at Kennedy Space Center was conducted using a mobile rig provided by West Virginia-basedAcoustic Research Systems, Inc.; it was the first time that acoustic testing was conducted on location at the SSPF, NASA's historic staging area for parts bound for the space station.
“Our goal is to accurately simulate real-world launch conditions to ensure that Sierra Space’s Shooting Star cargo module is ready for its first mission to the International Space Station,” said ARS CEO Jeremiah Leiter. “The ARS team rose to the challenge and set up a mobile configuration on site at Kennedy Space Center — the first time ever in the Space Systems Processing Facility — and provided Sierra Space with critical acoustic qualification testing. We look forward to supporting Sierra Space with the upcoming Dream Chaser acoustic test.”
ARS used a total of 48 acoustic devices during the payload module test. The company’s Neutron™ system is an industry-first and consists of patented, purpose-built acoustic devices designed for high-output aerospace acoustic testing. ARS will use an even larger array for Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplane; the upcoming test will be the largest payload ever tested with DFAN.
About Sierra Space
Sierra Space is a leading commercial space company at the forefront of innovation and commercialization of space in the Orbital Age®, building an end-to-end business and technology platform in space to benefit life on Earth. With over 30 years and 500 missions of space heritage, the company is reinventing both space transportation with Dream Hunter®, the world’s only commercial spacecraft, and the future of space destinations with the company’s inflatable and expandable space station technology. Using commercial business models, the company also provides orbital services to commercial, DoD, and national security organizations, and is expanding manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of constellation programs. Additionally, Sierra Space builds a broad range of systems and subsystems in the areas of solar energy, mechanical and motion control, environmental control, life support, propulsion, and thermal control, and offers numerous space-as-a-service solutions for the new space economy.
Source: Sierra Space
