Sierra Nevada Corporation could air drop its Dream Chaser spaceplane prototype using Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo if it wins funds from NASA's Commercial Crew Development programme.
The Nevada-based space systems manufacturer has submitted a proposal for NASA's crew programme that would see a weight-representative Dream Chaser test article air-dropped for a runway landing. The test would be for the subsonic flight phase aerodynamics and the effectiveness of the control surfaces and some avionic systems.
NASA's programme will award funded space act agreements (SAA) next month distributing a total sum of $50 million. Dream Chaser, a vehicle that would deliver three or up to seven crew to the International Space Station depending on the level of cargo it also carries, would be launched by a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V.
"[The test article] could be air dropped by WhiteKnightTwo, this is how our types of companies can co-operate," says Sierra Nevada's space systems board executive vice-president and chairman Mark Sirangelo, referring to the community of entrepreneurial companies that refer to themselves as New Space.
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Sierra Nevada Corporation could air drop its Dream Chaser spaceplane prototype using Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo if it wins funds from NASA's Commercial Crew Development programme. |
He adds that ULA has conducted detailed studies for Sierra on the viability of launching Dream Chaser on an Atlas V and that the work had gone far enough "for [us] to be confident" of success.
Dream Chaser will use Sierra hybrid rockets in three ways: as a launch abort system, for the de-orbit burn motors and for powering, in part, the descent to a runway. A test firing of this motor technology was conducted in September.
Sierra's subsidiary Spacedev is a recipient of an unfunded NASA SAA under the agency's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services programme. Sirangelo says the company has "spent millions" of its own money on Dream Chaser's development, which includes completion of four of the 12 agreed SAA milestones, which included Dream Chaser's preliminary design review.
Source: Flight International
