Sierra Space secures national security cargo for its spaceplane’s first flight

Sierra Space has signed contracts with undisclosed national security and commercial customers to fly payloads aboard the first mission of its Dream Chaser spaceplane, the company announced, adding new passengers to a debut flight that has already been delayed for years.

Dream Chaser is a reusable, uncrewed spacecraft designed to land on a runway like an airplane rather than splash down in the ocean or parachute onto land the way most cargo capsules do. Sierra Space has completed environmental testing, command and telemetry validation, and rehearsals for recovering the vehicle after landing, according to the company. The debut flight will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida and land on a runway at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The mission was originally supposed to dock with the International Space Station under a NASA cargo contract Sierra Space won in 2016, which required the company to fly at least seven resupply missions. After years of technical delays tied to Dream Chaser’s propulsion system, NASA and Sierra Space agreed in September 2025 to revise that contract. Instead of docking with the station on its first flight, Dream Chaser will fly as an independent “free flyer,” demonstrating its capabilities in orbit before NASA commits to ordering resupply missions. The flight is expected to conduct multiday orbital operations before returning to Earth.

“As the space domain has become increasingly contested, Dream Chaser has evolved into exactly what America needs, a strategic national capability built on commercial innovation and investment,” said Dan Jablonsky, CEO of Sierra Space. “We’re establishing a new operational model in which the same platform serves national security, civil, and commercial customers on a single mission. We’re not just talking about the multi-use space economy, we’re operating it. Dream Chaser is truly America’s Spaceplane.”

Sierra Space said this now makes Dream Chaser’s inaugural flight the first mission to combine national security, commercial and civil payloads, including NASA cargo under its Cargo Resupply Services program, on a single spacecraft.

“We spent years solving the hardest engineering challenges: deployable wings so we could maximize our payload capacity in a standard rocket fairing, hypersonic flight control providing unparalleled maneuverability and mission flexibility, autonomous reentry, and less than 1.5g runway landing,” said Dan Polis, senior vice president of engineering and Dream Chaser at Sierra Space. “The result is a multi-use space transportation system with operational capabilities no other vehicle offers.”

Dream Chaser folds its wings to fit inside a rocket’s payload fairing at launch, then unfolds them in orbit. The spacecraft is designed to be reused up to 15 times and can carry cargo with only partial space certification rather than full environmental qualification, which Sierra Space says lowers costs and speeds up development for customers building hardware to fly on it. The vehicle, named Tenacity, will launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket. If successful, it would mark the first orbital flight of a winged spacecraft since NASA’s Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

Sierra Space said it is still finalizing the full manifest of defense, civil and commercial payloads for the flight and has not disclosed the identities of the national security or commercial customers, the specific cargo involved, or a firm launch date.