LOUISVILLE, Colorado – 20 november 2024 – Sierra Space, Inc., a leading commercial aerospace and defense technology company building a platform in space to benefit life on Earth, ® today announced the recent completion of a sixth successful stress test and fourth Ultimate Burst Pressure (UBP) test for its LIFE® 10 commercial space station technology. This test of the revolutionary LIFE expandable platform, or Large Integrated Flexible Environment, was the final UBP test Sierra Space was required to perform on LIFE 10 to meet Factor of Safety (FOS) recommendations prior to certifying the structure for human habitation. Download photos and video from the recent testhere.

The LIFE 10 article in this most recent test, conducted on October 29 at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, ruptured at the highest pressure to date, 255 psi, and was the highest load to date of any test article in the three-year tie-layer certification test campaign. The 255 psi failure point exceeds every NASA recommended tie-layer capacity guideline in all applications and environments. As a standalone product line, this test proved that the LIFE 10 tie-layer exceeded NASA’s 4x safety factor in both LEO and lunar environments. LIFE 10 has an internal volume comparable to that of a 10-foot moving truck, making it an ideal module for the surface of the moon.

In a LEO environment where the module’s maximum internal pressure is equivalent to Earth’s at 15.2 psi, LIFE 10’s safety factor is greater than 16x. In a lunar environment where – due to various operational needs – the internal pressure is lower (approximately 10.8 psi), LIFE 10’s safety layer has an impressive 23x safety factor. With such high margins, Sierra Space completes the UBP portion of the LIFE 10 test campaign, further solidifying Sierra Space’s position as a leader in commercial space station development.

LIFE 10 is a one-third scale version of the company's LIFE ® 285 habitat, which inflates to the size of a three-story apartment building in orbit. Sierra Space has conducted two UBP tests on LIFE 285-scale modules over the past year; the first will be featured in the NOVA documentary series "Building Stuff," in an episode premiering Nov. 20 on PBS (see previewhere).

“Our company is fully committed to developing the technology necessary to ensure that there is no gap in LEO when the International Space Station is decommissioned,” said Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. “We are leading the industry in developing revolutionary expandable structures that bring to life 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 on Earth.”

“Sierra Space’s scalable LIFE habitat architecture is designed for a broad spectrum of space applications. The LIFE 10 design, which began as a scaled-down version of LIFE 285, is now directly applicable to developing infrastructure on the lunar surface,” said Shawn Buckley, VP, Destinations & In-Space Infrastructure at Sierra Space. “Whether supporting missions in low Earth orbit, deep space, or even on the Moon and Mars, LIFE has so many practical applications. At Sierra Space, we are proud to be at the forefront of inflatable habitat technology and continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible in space innovation.”

About Sierra Space

Sierra-ruminte 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

Sierra Space, a leading commercial aerospace company and defense technologist building a platform in space to benefit life on Earth®, today announced that the company’s patented Carbothermal Oxygen Production Reactor has successfully completed thermal vacuum testing at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, marking the first time ever that oxygen has been extracted from simulated lunar soil, or regolith, using an automated, self-contained system in a lunar environment. When scaled up, the technology is designed to produce bulk oxygen in support of one of the primary objectives of NASA’s Artemis program: establishing the first long-term presence on the Moon.

“The Apollo program took us to the moon to study and learn. Artemis takes us back to the moon, this time to stay,” said Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space. “Our company is focused on building the infrastructure needed to enable continued human presence on the lunar surface. This sustainable future starts with developing the core technology and systems that create oxygen in that environment, using local natural resources.”

Sierra Space test engineers spent two weeks in August operating the company’s oxygen extraction system in a thermal vacuum chamber at Johnson, working with lunar regolith simulant in an environment the hardware would recognize as similar to the moon’s water-ice-laden south polar region. Under lunar temperatures and pressures, the Sierra Space system performed all regolith processing steps and carried out the carbothermal reduction reaction that extracts oxygen from minerals in the regolith simulant.

This breakthrough innovation, a system developed at Sierra Space's facilities in Madison, Wisconsin, represents a major step forward in enabling long-term human habitation on the Moon and future space exploration projects. The company's Destinations and In-Space Infrastructure team, known for their work inbuilding the world's first commercial LEO space stationuses the company's breakthrough technologies in large, expandable space modules, environmental control systems, and space food growth systems to build core infrastructure on the Moon.

“This latest test validates that the technologies and techniques developed and used in the Sierra Space Oxygen Extraction System would work on the lunar surface,” said Shawn Buckley, Vice President of Space Destinations Systems at Sierra Space. “These efforts confirmed that the hardware has advanced to Technology Readiness Level Six, or TRL-6, meaning it has the maturity to be incorporated into a flight mission to the Moon as a technology demonstrator.”

Temperatures in which the Sierra Space Carbothermal Oxygen Production Reactor was tested ranged from minus 45 degrees Celsius to 1,800 degrees Celsius. In addition to the challenges of operating in subzero temperatures to temperatures hotter than lava, the hardware was required to move simulated lunar regolith – a highly abrasive and jagged material because it lacks the weathering processes that occur on Earth – through the system. Potentially harmful particles were effectively handled by the hardware and gases were successfully sealed off within the reactor, thanks to Sierra Space’s use of a patented valve design that has previously demonstrated functionality for over 10,000 cycles.

The tests demonstrated that Sierra Space’s system can successfully process regolith delivered by a lunar rover or robotic arm and automatically introduce it into the reaction chamber. The carbothermal reduction reaction process is then performed to remove oxygen from the minerals in the regolith, and the processed regolith is removed from the system so that the operation can be repeated.

“By harnessing the lunar resources, we reduce our dependence on Earth-based supplies and open new frontiers for space exploration and commercialization,” Vice added. “With our breakthrough technology that can provide a reliable source of oxygen on the ground, Sierra Space is poised to play a potential role in NASA’s Artemis program and other initiatives aimed at establishing a permanent human presence on the lunar surface.”

Resources like oxygen are crucial building blocks. In addition to using oxygen for breathing, it can also be used as fuel. This is a real breakthrough for enabling economical space exploration for a long-term presence on the moon and reducing the costs of future missions to Mars.

About Sierra Spacew

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

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

LOUISVILLE, Colorado - July 25, 2024 -Sierra Space, a leading commercial space technology company building a platform in space to benefit life on Earth , today announced that its expandable space station technology has successfully completed a seventh major validation test and a second large-scale structural test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The results mark a giant leap toward building the world’s first end-to-end business and technology platform in Low Earth Orbit, enabling humanity to find answers to some of Earth’s toughest problems.

The completion of the successful Ultimate Burst Pressure test, which took place on June 18 in collaboration with ILC Dover (an Ingersoll Rand Business) and NASA, accelerates Sierra Space’s revolutionary soft goods technology into in-space operations. The technology is planned for a first autonomous Pathfinder mission before the end of the decade and will also be a key element of the commercial space station Orbital Reef. The test completes Milestone #8 for Orbital Reef with Blue Origin under NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program.

“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 retires, ensuring there is no gap in LEO,” said Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space. “Our revolutionary, expandable space station technology is reinventing the space station. For the first time, our technology will enable the right unit economics that will usher in the full commercialization of space. Our biotech and industrial partners will use our factories of the future to innovate new products that will massively disrupt terrestrial markets and benefit life on Earth.”

The test article in the company historic first full-scale burst test last December peaked at 77 psi, well above (+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 December test article’s pressure load – 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 structures as small as 10 cubic meters and up to 1,400 cubic meters, based on the company’s current inflatable soft goods architecture. Sierra Space is currently gearing up for an initial 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 that has been stress-tested at full scale and demonstrated repeatability. We took a soft goods system that very few companies in 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 that it is possible to match or exceed the total habitable volume of the entire International Space Station in a single launch.”

The test article again included two four-by-four-foot blanks—metal structures placed inside the softgoods’ casing to simulate a future design component, such as a window, a robotic arm, or an antenna mount. They were 50 pounds lighter than the ones used in the first full-scale test and were designed to accommodate larger windows.

In the ever-evolving landscape of space exploration and commercialization, Sierra Space’s Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE®) technology is a breakthrough concept that will reshape the way humans live and work in space. LIFE is launched aboard a conventional rocket and inflates in orbit. The first LIFE product in the roadmap is a large, three-story, 27-foot diameter structure that comfortably sleeps four astronauts, with additional space for science experiments, fitness equipment, a medical center and an Astro Garden® system that 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 commercialization of space in the Orbital Age®, building an end-to-end business and technology platform in space to sustain life on Earth. With more than 30 years of experience and 500 space missions, the company is reinventing space transportation with Dream Hunter®, the world’s only commercial spaceplane, and the future of space destinations with the company’s inflatable and expandable space station technology. Through commercial business models, the company also provides orbital services to commercial, DoD, and national security organizations, 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, providing numerous space-as-a-service solutions for the new space economy.

Source: Sierra Space