Agreement paves the way for possible Sierra Space landings in New Mexico

LOUISVILLE — Louisville’s Sierra Space Corp. reach is growing well beyond its Boulder County home turf.

Just weeks after the Sierra Nevada Corp. spinoff announced the establishment of its Human Spaceflight Center and Astronaut Training Academy at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to train astronauts for commercial missions, SSC inked a memorandum of understanding with Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, to serve as a potential landing site for the Dream Chaser space plane.

SSC has similar agreements with NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and airports and landing sites in Huntsville, Alabama; Oita Airport, Japan; and Spaceport Cornwall in the United Kingdom. 

“Sierra Space is building the future of space — from transportation, to commercial space

destinations and all of the emerging applications — to develop a vibrant, growing and

accessible commercial space economy,” Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice said in a prepared statement. “With that vision in mind, we are creating space-tech hubs within the commercial space ecosystem and adding Spaceport America as a prospective landing site for Dream Chaser to continue to open up affordable access to space for all.” 

Sierra Space has two main aerospace projects: the Dream Chaser space plane, which is expected to be used to resupply the International Space Station starting next year; and the Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) Habitat, a modular, three-story commercial habitation, business and science platform.

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