Cargo DreamChaser to be Flown 6 Times on ULA Vulcan Rocket

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Cargo Dream Chaser has extended its agreement with United Launch Alliance (ULA) from two to six launches during its Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) missions to the International Space Station (ISS). All six missions will launch on ULA’s new rocket, Vulcan Centaur. The move was expected but requirement confirmation given Dream Chaser’s ability to launch on several launch vehicle options.

Dream Chaser will be flying at least six missions to the ISS in the 2020s, following NASA’s contract award to SNC – along with SpaceX and Orbital ATK for the CRS2 missions.

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NASA Approves Sierra Nevada's DreamChaser Manufacture of First Prototype Space Plane

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has won NASA approval to begin full-scale production of its Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft scheduled to make its first flight in about two years.

The company announced Dec. 18 that it completed a milestone in its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 contract called Integrated Review 4. With that milestone, the company is cleared to move ahead into assembly of the Dream Chaser vehicle that will deliver cargo to the station.

“NASA’s acknowledgement that SNC has completed this critical milestone and its approval of full production of the first Dream Chaser spacecraft is a major indication we are on the right path toward increasing vital science return for the industry,” John Curry, CRS-2 program director at the company, said in a statement announcing the milestone.

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Sierra Nevada gets Clearance for First DreamChaser Mission to ISS in Late 2020

NASA has given Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) formal approval for the company’s first cargo mission to the International Space Station in late 2020.

SNC announced Feb. 7 that it had received “authority to proceed” on that mission using the company’s Dream Chaser vehicle. The mission will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket in late 2020.

The mission is the first of six in the company’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 contract it won in 2016 to transport cargo to and from the ISS. SNC received a CRS-2 contract along with current CRS providers Orbital ATK and SpaceX.

“While we won the contract a couple of years ago, the contract still needed to be validated by a task order,” said Mark Sirangelo, executive vice president of SNC’s Space Systems business area, in a Feb. 7 speech at the Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Conference here. That order, he said, is the “biggest step” to date on the program.

That flight will be a “full scale, fully operational mission,” he said, even though it will represent the first orbital flight of the Dream Chaser. Orbital ATK and SpaceX, who developed their Cygnus and Dragon spacecraft, respectively, under earlier NASA Space Act Agreements, flew demonstration missions before starting their operational CRS cargo flights.

Dream Chaser, which SNC had been developing for NASA’s commercial crew program, will be able to transport up to 5,500 kilograms of cargo to the station. The lifting body vehicle can return up to 2,000 kilograms of cargo from the station, making a runway landing at the Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility or other airports to enable rapid access to experiments or other time-sensitive cargo after landing.

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China Claims Will Fly HOTOL Space Plane in 2020

China plans to launch its reusable spacecraft in 2020, according to a statement from China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation Tuesday.

Unlike traditional one-off spacecraft, the new spacecraft will fly into the sky like an aircraft, said Chen Hongbo, a researcher from the corporation.

The spacecraft can transport people or payload into the orbit and return to Earth.

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India Successfully Tests RLV Demonstrator Similar to USF X-37B

A rocket carrying the Reusable Launch Vehicle Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9:30 p.m. Eastern Sunday.

The RLV-TD, a winged vehicle similar in appearance to the U.S. Air Force’ s X-37B, separated from the rocket and flew to a peak altitude of 65 kilometers and speed of Mach 5 before gliding to a splashdown in the Bay of Bengal.

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Sierra Nevada Still Chasing DreamChaser Dream

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spaceplane is still holding on to the hope of flying missions for NASA despite losing out on the role of a Commercial Crew carrier for the Agency. Although little information has been heard about the future of the spacecraft of late, SNC is hoping to win favor from NASA in the upcoming award of the Cargo Resupply Services 2 (CRS2) contract.

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Airbus Spaceplane Drop Test Video

Airbus Conducts Spaceplane Drop Test