Draft:Shooting Star (spacecraft)

The Shooting Star is a planned expendable Thales Alenia Space-built service module currently under development for Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser Cargo System. It will be mated to the aft of Dream Chaser spaceplane and can carry 4,536 kg of supplies, cargo and experiments to the ISS.

It will be launched for the first time into space via ULA's Vulcan Centaur V24L rocket in April 2024 with Dream Chaser Tenacity on SNC Demo-1 mission.

Description
Shooting Star is derived from the word Shooting star, owing to its fiercy reentry after separation from Dream Chaser back to Earth. It houses all the thrusters required by Dream Chaser to reach and return from the space station. It can carry unpressurized cargo weighing up to 1500 kg. Once the module is in close proximity to the station, the Canadarm2 will capture the composite spacecraft via FRGF Grapple fixture on this module to berth the spacecraft via the Common Berthing Mechanism at the rear of this module to the ISS. This same arm will offload the unpressurized cargo and install it outside the station.

Development
After an unsuccessful bid by Sierra Nevada Corporation for Dream Chaser Space System for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the company designed the Dream Chaser Cargo System for Commercial Resupply Services Program-2 in September 2014. They proposed a separate expendable service module called the Shooting Star, attached to Dream Chaser. This service module will provide more cargo supply and trash to be disposed off the station.

In January 2016, SNC's Dream Chaser was selected as for this ISS resupply program, alongside SpaceX's Cargo Dragon variant and the Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (then Orbital ATK)'s Cygnus spacecraft. 6 missions were to be flown under this program by Dream Chaser through 2024. . NASA officials stated that adding a third company rather than two, for more options and redundancy in case of failure or scheduled delay. The Shooting Star was announced by SNC around 2019. Currently it is planned to have 6 Shooting Stars for each Dream Chaser Cargo System missions to ISS with more being counted in the near future.

Design
NASA’s Commerial Resupply Services contract heavilly influenced the Shooting Star concept, when mated to the Dream Chaser spaceplane. In addition to delivering pressurized and unpressurized cargo, the Shooting Star will serve as the service module for Dream Chaser. ULA’s Vulcan Centaur will launch Dream Chaser/Shooting Star within its 5.4 meter fairing. Shooting Star’s composite structure will be manufactured by Thales Alenia Space (formerly Advanced Composites) in San Diego, California. During CRS-2 missions, Dream Chaser will maneuver close to the International Space Station, where the Canadarm2 robotic arm will grapple the spacecraft and berth it to a Common Berthing Mechanism on the Harmony module in a similar fashion to other resupply vehicles. Unpressurized Cargo can also be transported to ISS via attachment to the exterior of the module.

As part of the Dream Chaser Launch System, the Shooting Star will be mounted to the aft portion of the Dream Chaser spaceplane and will serve as the Service Module with these capabilities: Space station crew will be able to access the Shooting Star module via the rear hatch, which will be berthed to the space station. They will then be able to pass through this spacecraft to access the hatch to the Dream Chaser spaceplane.
 * 6 kW electrical power from solar panels and battery system.
 * Active thermal control, or cooling services.
 * Translation and rotation capability using six thrusters mounted on aft section.
 * Three external mounting locations for unpressurized cargo. Each location can hold 500kg of cargo, or a single location can be used to carry 1,500 kg of cargo.
 * Internally, the Shooting Star provides normal cabin environment for the space station crew after berthing. After all resupply cargo is unloaded, cargo for atmospheric disposal can be loaded.

Unmanned Orbital Outpost
SNC has proposed the usage of Shooting Star as an Unmanned Orbital Outpost initially established in low-Earth orbit to host payloads and support space assembly, microgravity experimentation, and logistics. The Defense Innovation Unit, part of the United States Department of Defense, announced a contract with the company in 2020 for usage of Shooting Star for this purpose. These Unmanned Orbital Outposts are proposed occupy different orbital altitudes such as medium Earth orbit, highly elliptical orbit, and cislunar orbit.