{"id":19341,"date":"2016-06-22T22:56:52","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T14:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/sierra-nevada-corp-moves-ahead-on-nasa-milestones-for-dream-chaser-spaceship\/"},"modified":"2016-06-22T22:56:52","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T14:56:52","slug":"sierra-nevada-corp-moves-ahead-on-nasa-milestones-for-dream-chaser-spaceship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/sierra-nevada-corp-moves-ahead-on-nasa-milestones-for-dream-chaser-spaceship\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Nevada Corp. moves ahead on NASA milestones for Dream Chaser spaceship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_225074\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-225074\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-225074 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/160125-dreamchaser-630x336.jpg\" alt=\"Image: Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser\" width=\"630\" height=\"336\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/160125-dreamchaser-630x336.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/160125-dreamchaser-768x410.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/160125-dreamchaser-1240x661.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-225074\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Technicians at a Sierra Nevada Corp. facility in Colorado inspect the Dream Chaser engineering test article, or ETA, which is due to be put through atmospheric flight tests. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>After years of postponements, Sierra Nevada Corp. is planning to deliver a rebuilt test prototype of its Dream Chaser mini-space shuttle to NASA for testing in the August time frame, a company executive said today.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president for SNC Space Systems, also said the company&nbsp;has just satisfied the first milestone in its contract with NASA to develop the Dream Chaser as a cargo transport for the International Space Station.<\/p>\n<p>Sirangelo provided an update on the Dream Chaser at the Space Frontier Foundation\u2019s NewSpace 2016 conference in Seattle.<\/p>\n<p>In January, NASA gave the nod to SNC as well as to SpaceX and Orbital ATK to service the station during the second phase of its Cargo Resupply Services program, also known as CRS-2. Unlike SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule and Orbital\u2019s Cygnus craft, SNC\u2019s Dream Chaser has yet to fly.<\/p>\n<p>SNC Space Systems\u2019 facility in Louisville, Colo., is the development center for the winged craft, which looks like a scaled-down space shuttle.&nbsp;The project is just one line of business for Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp., which is a significant defense contractor and a key player in Turkey\u2019s TRjet aircraft development project.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SNC's Dream Chaser\u00ae Cargo System: A Transportation System to Deliver Cargo to the ISS for NASA\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eHvBUqfWDRs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been a long road for the Dream Chaser, which was adapted from&nbsp;a lifting-body concept that was considered&nbsp;by NASA in the 1990s.<\/p>\n<p>In 2010, Sierra Nevada Corp. began&nbsp;receiving&nbsp;millions of dollars from NASA for early development of&nbsp;the Dream Chaser as a transport craft for astronauts. Three years later, the Dream Chaser prototype was damaged when its landing gear failed at the end of a gliding test at California\u2019s Edwards Air Force Base. A year after that, SNC lost out to Boeing and SpaceX in a competition for funds to keep working on crew transports.<\/p>\n<p>Sirangelo said&nbsp;the Dream Chaser&nbsp;project had to be put on hold.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a devastating loss for us,\u201d Sirangelo said. \u201cLots of people went away. We had to lay off people. It was very hard. \u2026 The 90 people who were left on this program came to me and said, \u2018We\u2019re not ready to hang it up. We want to try again.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Winning the cargo development contract opened the way to resume work on the&nbsp;Dream Chaser. Sirangelo said his \u201cDream Team\u201d is now making good progress on the retooled prototype, which is designed for atmospheric testing rather than spaceflight. Sirangelo compared the craft to the shuttle Enterprise, which NASA built in the 1970s to test the aerodynamics for the space-ready shuttles that would follow.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_256724\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-256724\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-256724 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160622-dc-630x346.jpg\" alt=\"Shuttle vs. Dream Chaser\" width=\"630\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160622-dc-630x346.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160622-dc-768x422.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160622-dc-1240x682.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/160622-dc.jpg 1322w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-256724\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows the comparative size of NASA\u2019s space shuttle and Sierra Nevada Corp.\u2019s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle. (Credit: SNC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOur version of the shuttle Enterprise is about to be finished for its next phase of flight tests,\u201d Sirangelo said. \u201cSomewhere in the August time frame, it\u2019s going to be shipped off to California, to the Armstrong [Flight Research] Center and to Edwards to be in Phase 2 of flight testing, which is going to be really fun and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sirangelo said lessons learned from the atmospheric flight tests will be applied to the development of the orbital test vehicle, which is now being outfitted in Colorado. That test vehicle, in turn, will blaze the trail for the spacecraft that will carry cargo for NASA under the CRS-2 contract.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are looking to be launching on time, which is about three years from now, in the second half of 2019,\u201d Sirangelo said. \u201cThat contract will go well into the next decade, so we need lots of help. We\u2019re going to be hiring lots of people. If any of you guys want to come out and work on the next space shuttle, I think it\u2019s a pretty good time to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Dream Chaser is designed to be&nbsp;launched&nbsp;into orbit on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, and to glide back down to Earth for&nbsp;the return trip. Sirangelo said the craft should be able to&nbsp;land on any airstrip that can accommodate a Boeing 737 jet. Cargo from space could be unloaded within just a few hours. That rapid delivery capability is one of the Dream Chaser\u2019s big selling points.<\/p>\n<p>NASA\u2019s contract&nbsp;calls for&nbsp;a minimum of six Dream Chaser cargo flights, which could translate to a billion dollars or more for SNC. Sirangelo said that he expected NASA to specify the number of flights by the end of the year, and that the number is \u201cprobably going to be a lot&nbsp;more\u201d than six.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technicians at a Sierra Nevada Corp. facility in Colorado inspect the Dream Chaser engineering test article, or ETA, which is due to be put through atmospheric flight tests. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp.) After years of postponements, Sierra Nevada Corp. is planning to deliver a rebuilt test prototype of its Dream Chaser mini-space shuttle to NASA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[970,4703],"class_list":["post-19341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-dream-chaser","tag-sierra-nevada-corp"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19341\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}