Will the ISS get another space plane visit before falling back to Earth in 2030? The dream may be fading

The International Space Station (ISS) may never again be visited by a space plane.

NASA's space shuttle orbiters were instrumental in building the ISS, and in keeping it operational for its first decade; these reusable spacecraft ferried astronauts to and from the orbiting outpost until the fleet was fully retired in 2011. Five years later, the agency opened the door to more space plane meetups, signing a cargo deal with Sierra Space, the Colorado-based company behind the robotic Dream Chaser vehicle.

That 2016 contract awarded Sierra Space a minimum of seven ISS resupply flights with Dream Chaser and its companion cargo module, called Shooting Star. Nine years later, however, Dream Chaser has still not reached space — and its cargo deal has just been changed.

"After a thorough evaluation, NASA and Sierra Space have mutually agreed to modify the contract, as the company determined Dream Chaser development is best served by a free flight demonstration, targeted in late 2026," agency officials said in an emailed statement on Thursday (Sept. 25).

"Sierra Space will continue providing insight to NASA into the development of Dream Chaser, including through the flight demonstration," they added. "NASA will provide minimal support through the remainder of the development and the flight demonstration. As part of the modification, NASA is no longer obligated for a specific number of resupply missions; however, the agency may order Dream Chaser resupply flights to the space station from Sierra Space following a successful free flight as part of its current contract."

The timeline is getting a bit tight for possible Dream Chaser ISS missions, given the orbiting lab is scheduled to be deorbited in 2030. However, NASA is encouraging the development of commercial stations in low Earth orbit to fill the void left by the ISS' impending departure, and it's possible that Dream Chaser could visit one or more of those in the coming years.

In a different statement released on Thursday, Sierra Space (which spun off from the aerospace firm Sierra Nevada Corp. in 2021) invoked that and other potential use cases for Dream Chaser. Company officials stressed the space plane could still fly a variety of missions down the road, even if the vehicle never makes it to the ISS.

"Dream Chaser represents the future of versatile space transportation and mission flexibility," Fatih Ozmen, executive chair at Sierra Space, said in the statement.

"This transition provides unique capabilities to meet the needs of diverse mission profiles, including emerging and existential threats and national security priorities that align with our acceleration into the Defense Tech market," Ozmen added. "Together with NASA, we are seeking to preserve the exceptional potential of Dream Chaser as a national asset, ensuring its readiness for the next era of space innovation."

Two private American companies currently fly robotic resupply missions to the ISS for NASA — SpaceX, with its Dragon capsules, and Northrop Grumman, which uses a spacecraft called Cygnus. The agency also tapped SpaceX to deorbit the ISS in a controlled fashion in 2030, using a modified version of Dragon.