{"id":16001,"date":"2015-10-08T21:20:46","date_gmt":"2015-10-08T13:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/sierra-nevada-on-watch-for-critical-cargo-award\/"},"modified":"2015-10-08T21:20:46","modified_gmt":"2015-10-08T13:20:46","slug":"sierra-nevada-on-watch-for-critical-cargo-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/sierra-nevada-on-watch-for-critical-cargo-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Nevada on watch for critical cargo award"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sierra
Sierra Nevada Corp. technicians prepare the Dream Chaser engineering test article for another round of atmospheric flight tests. Credit: Sierra Nevada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A prototype of Sierra Nevada\u2019s Dream Chaser space plane is nearing shipment to California\u2019s Mojave Desert to resume runway landing tests as officials wait for word from NASA whether the company will win a competition to ferry cargo to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n

The announcement from NASA, expected in early November, bears additional significance for Sierra Nevada after the space agency bypassed the Dream Chaser last year with its selection of Boeing and SpaceX to ferry crews between Earth and the space station.<\/p>\n

With design roots in NASA\u2019s HL-20 lifting body testbed, the Dream Chaser was conceived by SpaceDev, a space firm founded in 1997 by entrepreneur Jim Benson. The spaceship\u2019s survival story has weathered the death of Benson, its founding father, and SpaceDev\u2019s acquisition by privately-held Sierra Nevada in 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe as an industry, and we certainly as a company and Dream Chaser, have been predicted to die every year in the 11 years since I\u2019ve been doing this, and so far, I\u2019m still standing up here and talking,\u201d said Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada\u2019s space systems division, at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, New Mexico.<\/p>\n

But Sierra Nevada put the Dream Chaser\u2019s primary purpose \u2014 as a human-rated crew-carrying spaceship \u2014 on hold after the company lost last year\u2019s commercial crew contract competition.<\/p>\n

Sierra Nevada has agreements with the European Space Agency, Japan\u2019s space agency and the German space agency to study how the Dream Chaser could fare in the international marketplace.<\/p>\n

But the scope of that work is a sliver of the value of a NASA cargo award.<\/p>\n

Sierra Nevada is up against NASA\u2019s incumbent space station cargo transportation providers, SpaceX and Orbital ATK, and Boeing, which has proposed using its CST-100 crew capsule for supply runs. NASA originally envisioned selecting multiple winners in May, but now the award is slated for around Nov. 5, according to the agency\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Asked what he would change about the NASA cargo program, Sirangelo lamented the award\u2019s delay, which has forced space station program managers to extend existing contracts with SpaceX and Orbital ATK to buy more cargo flights in 2018 to cover the orbiting research lab\u2019s needs. The follow-on contract, which NASA is staging to ensure competition and access to the market for new entrants, is supposed to run from 2018 through 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot having delays in the award would be a good thing,\u201d Sirangelo said Thursday. \u201cIt\u2019s a rough thing, and we all know it\u2019s a complicated process. The original award was scheduled for May or June, and now it\u2019s November, and in doing that it not only delays the ability for all of us to move forward, but \u2026 this is a people industry. We\u2019ve got lots and lots of people who are waiting to see what happens, and they\u2019ve got lives and families. That\u2019s the most important thing from our perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
Spaceflight Now members can read a transcript of our discussion with Mark Sirangelo. Become a member today and support our coverage.<\/h6>\n
\n
<\/h5>\n

Engineers adapted the design of the Dream Chaser crew vehicle for exclusively cargo over the last 12 months, introducing a new concept with more autonomy, an expendable cargo module with solar arrays, and foldable wings to fit inside the nose cones of multiple types of boosters.<\/p>\n

Sierra Nevada intended the crew version of Dream Chaser to launch without an aerodynamic fairing.<\/p>\n

\"The
The cargo variant of Sierra Nevada\u2019s Dream Chaser introduces foldable wings, allowing the space plane to fit inside the payload fairings of multiple launch vehicles. Credit: Sierra Nevada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While acknowledging the importance of the cargo contract, Sirangelo said the Dream Chaser is closer to becoming a real spaceship than ever before.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really different about it now from a few years ago is we already have real vehicles,\u201d Sirangelo said. \u201cWe\u2019re well into development. We have, through our partnerships with NASA and many other people, and have invested ourselves in our group, a considerable amount of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sirangelo updated reporters Wednesday on preps for approach and landing tests of a Dream Chaser engineering article at NASA\u2019s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. The descent demos come after the prototype Dream Chaser was damaged during an unpowered glide test in October 2013, when one of the ship\u2019s two main landing gears did not deploy.<\/p>\n

The test craft has been repaired and is being outfitted for flight at Sierra Nevada\u2019s space headquarters in Louisville, Colorado, then it will be transported to California\u2019s Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n

He said the upcoming test series, expected to begin in the first quarter of 2016, will use the Dream Chaser\u2019s flight software program and include drop and tow tests at NASA Armstrong. The earlier tests featured a temporary landing gear configuration borrowed from the F-5 fighter jet, and engineers have added redundancy for the coming flights.<\/p>\n

The cabin shell for the first space-worthy Dream Chaser has also rolled off the assembly line at Lockheed Martin\u2019s aerospace plant in Fort Worth, Texas, Sirangelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vehicle is highly mature and is in flight tests,\u201d Sirangelo said. \u201cThe idea of taking and moving it to the next level should we not win the cargo program is far more viable than it ever was \u2026 People thought perhaps we weren\u2019t going do this last year when we weren\u2019t selected for the crew competition. We actually, in my view, have moved somewhat faster and have developed a whole new second variant of the vehicle in that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The
The Dream Chaser\u2019s last flight test in October 2013 ended with a crash landing when one of the ship\u2019s main landing gears did not deploy. Sierra Nevada says the craft\u2019s guidance and control systems functioned as designed during the test. Credit: Sierra Nevada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With stubby wings and a 30-foot length, the Dream Chaser is about one-fourth the size of a space shuttle orbiter. Its cargo variant could haul up more than 12,000 pounds \u2014 5,500 kilograms \u2014 of equipment and experiments to the space station, according to Sierra Nevada.<\/p>\n

The spaceship could dock or berth with the space station, and it would be outfitted to deliver pressurized supplies and external cargo. At the end of each mission, the Dream Chaser space plane would return to Earth with research specimens and other items designated for recovery, while the detachable cargo module would burn up in Earth\u2019s atmosphere, disposing of the space station\u2019s rubbish.<\/p>\n

The upcoming landing tests are part of a still-active funding agreement Sierra Nevada signed with NASA\u2019s crew transportation program in 2012. Under the terms of the arrangement, the federal government pays Sierra Nevada as the company achieves pre-agreed milestones, and the atmospheric demo sequence is the final step in the agreement.<\/p>\n

NASA has committed approximately $350 million since 2010 to Sierra Nevada supporting the Dream Chaser space plane\u2019s development. Sierra Nevada has not disclosed how much internal funding it has routed toward the program.<\/p>\n

Sirangelo said Dream Chaser\u2019s atmospheric test article will be shipped from Sierra Nevada\u2019s Colorado facility to NASA Armstrong in California by the end of the year or early next year.<\/p>\n

A Sikorsky Skycrane helicopter will hoist the prototype spaceship \u2014 which weighs about three tons in its current test configuration \u2014 over a runway at Edwards Air Force Base, then drop the craft for a computer-guided approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re thinking three to six (flights),\u201d Sirangelo said. \u201cThat\u2019s the glide tests from different altitudes. What we\u2019re looking to do is exceed the goals that we set out, and when we do that, we\u2019ll be done with the flight tests.\u201d<\/p>\n

The series will include tow tests that will pull the Dream Chaser along the ground and lift it airborne for further demonstrations, Sirangelo said.<\/p>\n

\"The
The cabin for Sierra Nevada\u2019s first space-worthy Dream Chaser recently rolled off the assembly line at Lockheed Martin\u2019s factory in Fort Worth, Texas. Credit: Lockheed Martin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for resolving the landing gear glitch that prematurely ended the 2013 test flights, Sirangelo said engineers have added mechanical actuators to the hydraulic undercarriage deployment system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expecting to have the vehicle completed and moved out, depending on the NASA and Air Force regulations, within the next three to four months, and flight testing will start in the first quarter of 2016,\u201d Sirangelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea is to do three things,\u201d he told reporters Wednesday. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be going higher, so we can get a longer approach in. We\u2019ll be going faster, so we can test the vehicle in its full form, and we\u2019ll be using the software to do maneuvers. In our world, when you\u2019re doing airplane development or space plane development, you really want to understand how to land before you take off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sierra Nevada also announced Wednesday the completion of the composite \u201ccabin assembly\u201d for the Dream Chaser\u2019s first orbital test vehicle at a U.S. Air Force-owned, Lockheed Martin-operated airplane factory in Fort Worth, Texas.<\/p>\n

In a familiar refrain to industry insiders recalling the space shuttle program, Sirangelo promoted Dream Chaser\u2019s links to the winged orbiters, calling for NASA to select a mix of capsules and space planes for cargo services.<\/p>\n

Boeing, Orbital ATK and SpaceX are offering capsules. Orbital ATK\u2019s Cygnus spaceship is geared toward carrying up large loads of pressurized cargo inside a voluminous supply module, while SpaceX\u2019s Dragon offers unpressurized cargo accommodations and the ability to return equipment to Earth intact.<\/p>\n

The Cygnus spacecraft is \u201cfocused on high-volume, high-mass pressurized cargo,\u201d said Frank DeMauro, Orbital ATK\u2019s vice president of human spaceflight and Cygnus program director. \u201cLooking at it, you can see the big (pressurized) can. We load that as full as we can with pressurized cargo, and I think we\u2019ve demonstrated that\u2019s gone very well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that we have a slightly smaller up pressurized volume capability, but with unpressurized capability and the down-mass capability, I think makes our two solutions very, very (complementary) to supply ISS,\u201d said Joshua Brost, a manager in SpaceX\u2019s business development office.<\/p>\n

As for Dream Chaser, Sirangelo pitched the spacecraft\u2019s all-in-one cargo capacity, with pressurized and unpressurized delivery, return and disposal. He said the ship\u2019s ability to land on a runway, giving scientists nearly immediate access to experiments, is also a plus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think having a balance between capsules and flying lifting body vehicles is a good thing for NASA and the country,\u201d Sirangelo said.<\/p>\n

The Dream Chaser cargo carrier could be ready for space missions by late 2018 or early 2019, he said.<\/p>\n

Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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