SNC Dream Chaser (Lockheed teams in, flight test sched.)

[Dr Mordrid]

New Concept of Operations video (CONOPS)

Looking like DC will, with an adapter, be launchable by Atlas V, Delta IV, Falcon 9, and possibly Europe's Ariane V. SNC is hinting they plan on selling DC's, which could work under the recently reformed ITAR regulations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7yPVaNdGBw

[Dr Mordrid]

Holy Moley!!

From todays SNC - Lockheed Martin event Q&A -

Lockheed Martin has teamed with SNC to help with the Dream Chaser's certification as an exclusive partner. SNC will use LockMart facilities, including MAF. SNC didn't release the dollar value of the Lockheed deal, but called it a "significant multimillion dollar contract".

Jim Crocker of Lockheed Martin says they will have dozens of people working on the Dream Chaser certification. Baselining a 25 to 30 mission life for Dream Chaser, possibly more. They will build as many vehicles as needed for the market.

Dream Chaser will be shipped to NASA Dryden in two weeks, and in 6-8 weeks it will be dropped from a helicopter for a runway landing test. Initial tests will last 30-40 seconds; drop from 12,000 ft, achieve 300 knots and land on a runway at 180 knots, They will collect aero data gathering on next several tests (2-5 flights.) After those comes the Dream Chaser FTV (Flight Test Vehicle) and piloted flight tests. Orbital tests in about 2 years.

Private passenger orbital flights are on the table, and SNC could provide flight services to other nations that want space programs but won't or can't invest the money in their own capability.

Dream Chaser could serve as an unmanned science platform, provide satellite servicing, and do missions involving orbit changes

Presser -

Sierra Nevada Corporation and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company Partner On Dream Chaser Programs

SPARKS, Nev., – January 30, 2013 – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems is pleased to announce Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Littleton, Colo., is joining the SNC Dream Chaser® team. Lockheed Martin will be an exclusive partner to SNC on NASA's Certification Products Contract (CPC) and has been competitively selected to build the composite structure for the Dream Chaser at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. SNC was awarded $10 million for CPC Phase 1 to work with NASA towards government certification of the SNC Dream Chaser orbital crew transportation system.

"The SNC team is thrilled that Lockheed Martin will be joining our expanding world-class team of partner organizations also working to certify the Dream Chaser Space System for crewed flights to the International Space Station for NASA.” said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of SNC’s Space Systems. “The CPC contract offers the Dream Chaser team the opportunity for a more robust technical interchange with NASA as we work to develop a safe, reliable orbital crew transportation system. This contract capitalizes on SNC's success working with NASA's Commercial Crew Program, as well as Lockheed Martin's expertise in developing and certifying Orion's beyond low Earth orbit human spaceflight hardware as part of NASA's Exploration Program. Our team will work towards the common goal of certifying the Dream Chaser to provide the next generation human transportation system."

Lockheed Martin is developing NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and brings extensive and current experience in obtaining NASA certification for a crewed flight vehicle to the Dream Chaser program.

“We are pleased to join the SNC Dream Chaser team. Lockheed Martin brings with it tremendous human-rated space flight knowledge from our significant experience with large, human-flight structures, including 135 flights with the Space Shuttle’s external fuel tanks. We feel we can share many synergies between the Orion exploration spacecraft and the Dream Chaser lifting body space vehicle. This provides a great opportunity to take NASA’s investments in crew exploration capabilities and leverage them toward commercial transportation to low Earth orbit,” said Jim Crocker, vice president and general manager, Civil Space, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

The composite structure for the Dream Chaser flight test vehicle is being built under the SNC $212.5 million Space Act Agreement for the NASA Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Program. This effort leverages the extensive Lockheed Martin experience in building composite structures for spacecraft and high performance aircraft. With the addition of Lockheed Martin as a partner on the Dream Chaser program, SNC is now working with partner organizations in over 15 states on NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability program.

“We are pleased to include Lockheed Martin as part of the Dream Chaser Team to develop early certification products and to build critical flight hardware. Their recent human spacecraft certification experience and composite expertise make them a great addition to our program,” said Jim Voss, vice president of Space Exploration Systems and Dream Chaser program manager.

The SNC and Lockheed Martin partnership represents the best of entrepreneurial spirit and established space mission success, collaborating on vehicle development, certification and reaching additional customer markets for the Dream Chaser orbital vehicle. The team looks forward to working with NASA to successfully execute on the first round of the CPC contract and move towards offering the Dream Chaser Space System as a commercial solution to crew and cargo servicing of the International Space Station.

[Elie]

Isn't that similar to the ship Steve Austin crashed in back in the 70's?

Check it out...

[Dr Mordrid]

X-24 was one of a long line in the lifting body evolution dating back to the 30's. The Russians borrowed some of NASA's ideas and came up with their own, resulting in their BOR-4 - a subscale testbed that flew. When it was recovered an Aussie plane filmed the recovery, sent the shots to NASA and another cycle started here.

NASA refined the BOR-4 shape into two spacecraft thst were to replace the Space Shuttle in the 1990's; the HL-20 and its upscaled brother the HL-42. HL-20 was geared to be a crew taxi, and HL-42 would add a cargo bay. An engineering test article HL-20 was built in the runup to building a flight bird for launch on the Titan launcher, but not so for the HL-42. Unfortunaty, Congress cut funding for HL-20 / HL-42; certain Senators didn't want the Shuttle program ended as it hit their states, so kill the competition.

After the cancellation a few years passed and NASA contractor SpaceDev (owned by Jim Benson) decided they wanted to build a crew spacecraft to compete in the Commercial Crew program, so they bought the HL-20 rights & prototype from NASA and Dream Chaser was born. SpaceDev was already building hybrid rocket engines (solids that can be shut down, throttled and restarted) for Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne X-Prize competitor (and winner), so those were specced as its combination launch abort, orbital insertion, orbital maneuvering and cross-range maneuvering engines.

Jim Benson died a couple years in, SpaceDev was bought by another big aerospace outfit named Sierra Nevada Corp. (tidbit: female owned.) The Dream Chaser program was given a big funding increase, and here we are.