Texas A&M Vashisht College of Medicine receives Dream Chaser spaceplane mockup from Sierra Space

Texas A&M University’s Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine today announced the arrival of a Dream Chaser spaceplane mockup from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, formally launching a new strategic alliance between its Aerospace Medicine Program and Sierra Space. The Dream Chaser mockup, delivered from the Spacecraft Vehicle Mockup Facility in Houston, will serve as a cornerstone training and research asset for Texas A&M’s growing aerospace medicine enterprise. This collaboration advances the Vashisht College of Medicine as a national leader in operational space medicine, commercial spaceflight readiness, and defense-relevant medical training.

“Partnerships like this give Texas A&M students the opportunity to work with the technologies that will define the next era of spaceflight,” said Glenn Hegar, chancellor of The Texas A&M University System. “Training future flight surgeons and researchers on a platform like Dream Chaser strengthens our leadership in aerospace medicine and helps prepare the workforce that will support America’s growing presence in space.”

Arrival of the Dream Chaser mockup represents the ability for medical training, research, and education to become more realistic.

“This is a transformative moment for aerospace medicine at Texas A&M,” said Jeff Chancellor, Ph.D., director of the Aerospace Medicine Program. “With a flight-like spacecraft training platform, we can move beyond theory and simulations. Now, we engage in mission-relevant medical training, research, and education that matches how humans will actually fly in space.”

Through this joint initiative, the Vashisht College of Medicine will collaborate with Sierra Space to jointly develop research projects, create new training procedures for flight surgeons, offer internship opportunities, and update aerospace medicine courses to incorporate real-world industry input.

“Sierra Space is proud to support Texas A&M University and its Aerospace Medicine Program by providing our life-size mockup of the Dream Chaser Orbital Spaceplane,” said Tom Marshburn, M.D., chief astronaut and vice president of programs at Sierra Space. “Humans and sensitive payloads are expected to interface with the actual Dream Chaser spaceplane when it launches, and we look forward to working with Texas A&M students and faculty on the insights the mockup vehicle can provide for human factors studies, in aerospace and mechanical engineering, and in potential space medical capabilities.”