ULA targets Friday Vulcan launch of Dream Chaser ISS cargo run, as ESA’s Hera completes pre‑arrival burn
Isabelle Voss ·
United Launch Alliance plans to launch a Vulcan rocket from Cape Canaveral on Friday, carrying Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle on its next resupply mission to the International Space Station. NASA and ULA closed a flight readiness review on Tuesday, keeping the time sensitive window aligned with the station’s orbit.
The flight extends NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services portfolio with a runway landing option for rapid cargo return. For Sierra Space, timely execution builds credibility for a reusable logistics service that complements SpaceX Dragon and supplements Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus.
Vulcan’s first stage uses two methane fueled BE 4 engines, with a hydrogen oxygen Centaur V upper stage handling orbital insertion into the ISS plane at 51.6 degrees. Dream Chaser rides to low Earth orbit inside a payload fairing attached to its expendable Shooting Star module, which provides additional power and unpressurized cargo volume.
After separation from Centaur, Dream Chaser will phase its orbit to match the station’s altitude near 400 kilometers. Approach burns guide the vehicle along the radial approach corridor for a grappling capture by Canadarm2 and berthing to the Harmony module’s Earth facing port.
NASA expects a several week stay for unloading and trash disposal through the Shooting Star module. On departure, Dream Chaser will perform a deorbit to a runway landing at Kennedy’s Shuttle Landing Facility, returning roughly 1,700 kilograms of experiments and time sensitive cargo within hours.
ULA has kept pad flow flexible to protect the ISS window, which opens when the station’s ground track passes Cape Canaveral. Space Launch Delta 45 will issue an updated weather outlook midweek, with sea breeze thunderstorms the main concern for afternoon attempts.
Also this week: ESA’s Hera probe completed a trajectory correction burn, a key step toward its planned 2026 rendezvous with the Didymos Dimorphos binary asteroid system. Hera will map the DART impact crater on Dimorphos and characterize the system’s mass and interior, turning a planetary defense test into a quantitative data set.
If Vulcan lifts off on time, it signals growing launch cadence for commercial logistics and for ULA’s BE 4 powered fleet, which is competing for national security work. Hera’s steady cruise underscores how science and security missions now run in parallel on the same industrial base, a sign of a maturing space economy that values reliability over spectacle.