An Update on Sierra Nevada’s ‘Dream Chaser’ Space Ship….

The company has been trying to get NASA back into the space craft business after the shuttle program was shut down….

It has NOT worked….

Boeing and Musk’s Space X capsule’s have been manned space transportation….

Dream Chaser was schduled to move to cargo runs to the International Spoace Station….

But certification seems so far off that the compoany will do its first serious test flight next year without a mission, just to get the ship flying….

For us who grew up on ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’ space travel?

Dream Chaser would be a move to get back into manned space ships….

And?

Would serve to be better vehicle for space missions then capsules…. 

.But the American  Space Shuttle program’s failure HAS affected this space ship’s future….

 

For the last 18 years, privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp. has been pitching NASA on plans to develop and fly a winged vehicle, named Dream Chaser, which evolved from the agency’s HL-20 lifting body designs of the 1990s.

Between 2010-12, Sierra Nevada won three rounds of funding for Dream Chaser, totaling more than $325 million, under the NASA Commercial Crew Development program. When the agency instead chose crew vehicles from SpaceX and Boeing for flight services, Sierra Nevada repositioned Dream Chaser for cargo missions and in 2016 won a contract for at least six resupply runs to the International Space Station (ISS).

But Dream Chaser’s debut, originally targeted for 2021, has been repeatedly delayed. Its first flight is now not expected until late 2026. ISS is due to end in 2030.

With the clock ticking, NASA and Sierra Nevada’s spinoff company Sierra Space last month said they had mutually decided to nix Dream Chaser’s ISS cargo runs and conduct a free-flying demonstration mission instead. The contract modification, announced Sept. 25, canceled NASA’s commitment to purchase flights to the ISS, but left the option open to add resupply missions following the Dream Chaser debut.

In an interview with Aviation Week, Sierra Space says ending its commitment to fly NASA cargo was the fastest path to first flight. “We were mutually aligned to modify the contract,” said Dan Polis, vice president of Engineering Solutions and Propulsion Systems and Dream Chaser program manager. “We have been working closely with NASA on a path, and we felt that we were ready to fly … This was favorable for us to get to first flight more quickly…..

More…

image…Dream Chaser Tenacity in its processing hangar at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in August…. Sierra Space