![\"Z4\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Z410.jpg\")
Up until this point, only historical, computational and wind tunnel data backed Dream Chaser\u2019s ability to enjoy controlled unpowered flight.<\/p>\nSNC\u2019s Dream Chaser crew vehicle is preparing for another California adventure, highlighted by a second free flight, approach and landing test in December. Although she was rejected by NASA as a Commercial Crew partner, the Agency is deeply invested in the vehicle\u2019s test program, classing it as \u201csynergistic\u201d with her cargo carrying sister that has earned a NASA future via the CRS2 contract.<\/p>\n
Dream Chaser\u2019s Return:<\/p>\n
Previously known as the Engineering Test Article (ETA), the Dream Chaser test vehicle enjoyed a successful test program under the support and guidance of NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).<\/p>\n
The milestones \u2013 including numerous helicopter trips under tether \u2013 all led up to a major test at the Dryden Flight Research Center in 2013.<\/p>\n
Up until this point, only historical, computational and wind tunnel data backed Dream Chaser\u2019s ability to enjoy controlled unpowered flight.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite all the computer modeling and simulations, there had not been a lifting body of this type flown since the 1970s,\u201d noted Mark N. Sirangelo, corporate vice president of SNC\u2019s Space Systems business area. \u201cWe really wanted to make sure this design would fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
That test saw Dream Chaser released high over Edwards Air Force Base, with her automated flight control system gently steering the vehicle to her intended glide slope, with the vehicle adhering to the design flight trajectory without issue.<\/p>\n
![\"Z7\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Z76.jpg\")
Less than a minute later, Dream Chaser smoothly flared and prepared to touch down on Runway 22L.<\/p>\n
In the final 20 seconds of the flight, the vehicle acquired the runway and lowered her rate of descent to 1.58 feet per second, with an approach speed of approximately 160 knots. This was within predicted parameters.<\/p>\n
Aerospace industry analysis (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n The timing of landing gear deployment \u2013 the main landing gear both port and starboard on the aft of the vehicle, with a nose skid in place of the conventional nose landing gear wheel \u2013 was decided by onboard parameters via an onboard ground radar altimeter.<\/p>\n As Dream Chaser touched down, the \u201cweight on wheels\u201d during rollout saw the vehicle begin to lean to the left, with the airframe touching the runway, before skidding off the strip in that direction and kicking up a large amount of dust and sand as she went for a tumble.<\/p>\n With all test objectives met during the flight, the unplanned event of Dream Chaser suffering an accident during rollout actually provided additional parameters on how the vehicle could cope with such a scenario.<\/p>\n NASA officials also noted they were impressed with the test and continually showed their support for the vehicle during the company\u2019s recovery from the accident.<\/p>\n However, SNC \u2013 somewhat surprisingly \u2013 lost out in NASA\u2019s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract award decision \u2013 with the Agency opting to press forward with funding for SpaceX\u2019s Dragon 2 and Boeing\u2019s CST-100 (Starliner).<\/p>\n Although SNC has signed a number of agreements with a number of international partners for the potential use of the Dream Chaser for a range of missions, missing out of the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) was a large blow to her future ambitions.<\/p>\n At one point it appeared unlikely that a second free flight \u2013 also known as the approach and landing test \u2013 would be undertaken, given the final CCiCAP milestone payment would not likely cover the costs involved with completing the test.<\/p>\n The CRS2 contract, which will involve supply runs to the orbital outpost from 2019, was awarded to SNC\u2019s new version of the Dream Chaser, along with Orbital ATK and SpaceX.<\/p>\n The synergy between the two versions of Dream Chaser has added additional focus on the second free flight of what is now known as the Flight Test Vehicle (FTV \u2013 as opposed to ETA).<\/p>\n The result is a more \u201cactive\u201d second test, as opposed to a repeat of the landing attempt conducted in 2013, allowing a progression of the data gathering that will feed into the cargo version of the vehicle.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to get some more data and fly Dream Chaser in a more robust flight environment where they can test more of their systems,\u201d noted NASA\u2019s Director of Commercial Spaceflight Development Phil McAlister at the recent NAC meeting.<\/p>\n \u201cVery impressive, they\u2019ve made a lot of progress on it (and it\u2019s going) to collect a lot of data, with subsonic flight software and GNC \u2013 which is a big upgrade compared to the last vehicle, along with full power flight computer performance,\u201d added Mr. McAlister.<\/p>\n \u201cThe test is currently scheduled for December, but we added some margin into the SAA which is why it goes out to June 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n With Dream Chaser now finding a role for NASA in the CRS2 contract, the test of the FTV \u2013 although not the vehicle that will launch cargo to the ISS \u2013 has a large amount of synergy with the ambitions of the CRS2 role for Dream Chaser.<\/p>\n SNC also cited the marriage between the completion of its Commercial Crew obligations and the path to the CRS2 Dream Chaser.<\/p>\n Noting the upgrades \u2013 involving additional critical tests to validate the Dream Chaser\u2019s orbital flight software and calculate the spacecraft\u2019s handling and performance characteristics \u2013 the test data will be used to confirm Dream Chaser\u2019s subsonic aerodynamic properties as well as flight software and control system performance requirements.<\/p>\n Known as \u201cPhase Two flight test efforts\u201d, Dream Chaser\u2019s return to California will be \u201chighly supportive of, and executed in parallel with continued work being done by SNC under the NASA CRS-2 program.\u201d<\/p>\n The test will \u201cact as a bridge between previous work with CCP and the next-generation vehicle currently under development for the forthcoming International Space Station cargo resupply missions.\u201d<\/p>\n The company is aiming to build two cargo Dream Chasers, able to fly a total of 30 times over a 10 year lifetime.<\/p>\n The CRS2 Dream Chaser has already made progress towards her future cargo role, passing the opening two milestones of its CRS2 contract with NASA.<\/p>\n (Images: Via SNC and L2 \u2013 including renders from L2 artist Nathan Koga \u2013 The full gallery of Nathan\u2019s (SpaceX Dragon to MCT, SLS, Commercial Crew and more) L2 images can be *found here*)<\/p>\n (To join L2, click here: \/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/l2\/)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SNC\u2019s Dream Chaser crew vehicle is preparing for another California adventure, highlighted by a second free flight, approach and landing test in December. Although she was rejected by NASA as a Commercial Crew partner, the Agency is deeply invested in the vehicle\u2019s test program, classing it as \u201csynergistic\u201d with her cargo carrying sister that has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30171,"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":[4055,7893,5608,970,233,8894],"class_list":["post-38996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ccicap","tag-ccp","tag-crs2","tag-dream-chaser","tag-iss","tag-snc"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38996"}],"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=38996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Z8\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/Z83.jpg\")
Both the nose skid and the starboard gear deployed as planned. However, the port landing gear door remained closed.<\/p>\n![\"2015-10-06-144717\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/2015-10-06-144717-350x253.jpg\")
The result was a fair amount of cosmetic damage, but no serious impact on the internal structure of the vehicle. Had a crew been onboard, they would have walked away. Even the fluffy dice in the cockpit remained in place.<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
\n
![\"2016-08-03-134133\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016-08-03-134133-350x245.jpg\")
However, Dream Chaser received a major boost via another NASA contract, this time based on the delivery of cargo \u2013 as opposed to crew \u2013 to the International Space Station.<\/p>\n![\"2016-08-03-134705\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016-08-03-134705-350x222.jpg\")
As promised by NASA ahead of the CCtCAP announcement, the Agency did not abandon the losing partners, providing SNC with a Space Act Agreement (SAA) that will remain active until June 2017.<\/p>\n![\"2016-08-03-134547\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016-08-03-134547-350x180.jpg\")
In fact, Dream Chaser was more than just repaired from her 2013 test, she\u2019s been upgraded as noted by the NASA manager.<\/p>\n![\"2016-08-03-135427\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016-08-03-135427-350x223.jpg\")
\u201cIt\u2019s the crewed Dream Chaser, but obviously what we can learn we can apply to CRS2, so that\u2019s another synergistic opportunity I would say. These are all learning opportunities for us. So this can help us on the CRS contract.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"2016-08-03-135515\"](\"\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016-08-03-135515-350x219.jpg\")
\u201cThese tests are significant for us in multiple ways; building on our previous flight test, completing a significant milestone under our CCP agreement, as well as gathering crucial data that will help complete the design of the vehicle being built for our CRS-2 contract,\u201d added Mr. Sirangelo.<\/p>\n