Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Sierra Nevada Unveils Cargo Version of Private Dream Chaser Space Plane

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: March 18, 2015 at 2:26:49 PM CDT
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Sierra Nevada Unveils Cargo Version of Private Dream Chaser Space Plane

Dream Chaser Cargo Spacecraft Will Be Rapidly Reusable | Video
2015, March, 17 16:32
Launching on a rocket lower stage, Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser Cargo version could visit space facilities, then re-enter and glide to a runway landing thanks to its lifting body-based aero-design.
http://www.space.com/28852-dream-chaser-cargo-spacecraft-will-be-rapidly-reusable-video.html

Sierra Nevada Unveils Cargo Version of Private Dream Chaser Space Plane
by Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | March 18, 2015 07:00am ET

A robotic space plane may start ferrying supplies to and from the International Space Station a few years from now.
Sierra Nevada Corp. today (March 17) revealed details about the autonomous cargo version of its Dream Chaser space plane, which the company hopes NASA chooses to fly the next round of cargo missions to the orbiting lab. The company also unveiled a video animation of how Dream Chaser could deliver cargo for NASA.
"This represents really the next step in the evolution of Dream Chaser, not only in terms of its capabilities and what it's going to be able to do, but also in its design and its enhancements as we move forward with many of the technical advances over the last couple of years," Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada's Space Systems division, told reporters during a conference call today. [See photos of Dream Chaser]
Artist's concept showing Sierra Nevada's unmanned Dream Chaser Cargo System docking to the International Space Station.
Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation
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Private cargo delivery 2.0
Two American aerospace firms — SpaceX and Orbital ATK — currently hold billion-dollar NASA contracts to make cargo runs to the space station. Last year, the space agency solicited proposals for the next round, which is known as Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) and will cover deliveries from 2018 through 2024.
Sierra Nevada is among a handful of companies challenging the incumbents in CRS-2. Boeing, for example, is developing a cargo version of its CST-100 capsule, and Lockheed Martin is designing a system consisting of a disposable cargo module and a reusable space tug called Jupiter.
The total value of the CRS-2 award is potentially as high as $14 billion, Sirangelo said. NASA has said it will make its decision in June, and the agency is widely expected to give contracts to more than one company.
Sirangelo thinks Sierra Nevada's entry, known as the Dream Chaser Cargo System (DCCS), should be one of the winners.
"We believe it's the best cargo solution that currently exists, and will exist," Sirangelo said.
The autonomous cargo version of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane is seen on orbit in this illustration.
Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation
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An illustration shows Sierra Nevada's nncrewed Dream Chaser spacecraft inside a standard 5m fairing.
Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation
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Robotic Dream Chaser
Dream Chaser is a winged minishuttle that blasts off atop a rocket and lands on a runway like an airplane. The vehicle leverages the technological heritage of NASA's space shuttle program, which came to an end in July 2011 after 30 years of orbital service, Sierra Nevada officials have said.
Sierra Nevada has been developing Dream Chaser as a crewed vehicle for more than a decade. Indeed, the company sought a contract to fly NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS), but last September lost out to SpaceX and Boeing, which are building capsules (called Dragon and the CST-100, respectively).
The DCCS vehicle is similar to the original piloted Dream Chaser, with a few key differences, Sirangelo said. The cargo variant has foldable wings so it will fit inside a 16.5-foot-wide (5 meters) launch fairing; it features upgraded software that makes the space plane fully autonomous; and the system incorporates a cargo module that attaches near Dream Chaser's tail.
The space plane would come back down to Earth after completing its resupply mission, returning scientific experiments and other "down mass" in a gentle glide that never exceeds a g-force of 1.5. (The acceleration of gravity at Earth's surface causes a g-force of 1.) The cargo module, meanwhile, would burn up in the planet's atmosphere.
DCCS could carry 12,125 lbs. (5,500 kilograms) of cargo up to the space station on each flight and return 3,858 lbs. (1,750 kg) to Earth. Up to 10,472 lbs. (4,750 kg) could be disposed of on every mission's return leg, Sierra Nevada officials said.
As currently envisioned, DCCS would launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, though it's designed to be compatible with a number of other rockets, Sirangelo said.
Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft will be compatible with the Atlas V and Ariane V booster rockets.
Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation
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The future
Diagram showing the robotic resupply variant of Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser space plane, which incorporates a separate cargo module.
Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation
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The DCCS variant doesn't signal the end of a crewed Dream Chaser. Sierra Nevada still wants a piloted version to take flight someday, and Sirangelo said the changes implemented for the cargo vehicle should actually help bring that vision closer to reality.
"Everything that we're doing in this vehicle is transferable to a future crewed vehicle," Sirangelo said. "We actually think we're enhancing it and accelerating that crew capability."
In fact, the company sees Dream Chaser taking on a number of roles in the future, in both its robotic and piloted versions.
"This is and continues to be a multimission vehicle," Sirangelo said. "Our solution is really something that goes beyond ISS."
Sirangelo said Dream Chaser's unique design gives the spaceflight community added flexibility.
"There are many capsules in the world; there's really only one vehicle like Dream Chaser that's commercially available right now," he said. "None of us know what the next decade of space is going to be like, and having capabilities like this available continuously [keeps] our options open."

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Sierra Nevada Hopes Dream Chaser Finds "Sweet Spot" of ISS Cargo Competition
by Jeff Foust — March 17, 2015
A cargo version of Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser vehicle approaches the International Space Station in this illustration. The company is one of five bidding for a new round of contracts to transport cargo to and from the station. Credit: Sierra Nevada Corp. illustration
WASHINGTON — Sierra Nevada Corp., looking to rebound from a failed commercial crew bid, said March 17 it has proposed to NASA a variant of its Dream Chaser vehicle for shuttling cargo to and from the International Space Station.
At a press conference during the Satellite 2015 conference here, company officials offered details of its Dream Chaser Cargo System, based on the Dream Chaser vehicle the company had been developing for NASA's commercial crew program.
"We believe that it's the best cargo system that currently exists or will exist, because it's capable of meeting all of NASA's cargo requirements in the same system," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems.
The cargo version of Dream Chaser features two major design changes from its crew version. Sierra Nevada plans to develop a small cargo module attached to the aft section of the winged vehicle. This cargo module, equipped with solar panels, will accommodate both internal and external cargo.
Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems, discusses the company's Dream Chaser cargo vehicle at a press conference in Washington on March 17. On the podium is a model of the vehicle. Credit: SpaceNews photo by Jeff Foust
The Dream Chaser's wings will also be able to fold up for launch. This allows the vehicle to fit within payload fairings five meters in diameter currently used by the Atlas 5 and Ariane 5 launch vehicles. The crewed version of Dream Chaser, by comparison, was not designed to be encapsulated in a fairing and thus did not need foldable wings.
This vehicle, company officials said, meets or exceeds all the requirements NASA laid out for the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) competition for transporting cargo to and from the ISS. The vehicle can transport 5,000 kilograms of pressurized cargo and 500 kilograms of unpressurized cargo to the station. It can bring back 1,750 kilograms of cargo within Dream Chaser, and dispose of an additional 3,250 kilograms in the cargo module, which jettisons and burns up on reentry.
"There's an important sweet spot in the amount of cargo you can bring up to the space station as well as return," said Steve Lindsey, senior director of space exploration systems at Sierra Nevada. Cargo vehicles, he said, should be large enough to minimize the number of flights needed to keep the station supplied, but not so large they are difficult to operate. "We think we've hit that."
Sierra Nevada also hopes to convince NASA that Dream Chaser's unique design — it is the only vehicle competing for the CRS-2 contracts that can land on a runway — makes the system worthwhile. "There are many capsules in the world, but there's really one vehicle like Dream Chaser," Sirangelo said. "We believe in a mixed fleet."
The CRS-2 competition is a fallback for Sierra Nevada after it lost to Boeing and SpaceX for commercial crew contracts NASA awarded in September 2014. The company filed a protest with the U.S. Government Accountability Office regarding those contracts, but that protest was denied in January.
Sirangelo said that the cargo version of Dream Chaser benefits from several months of additional work the company did between the deadlines for the commercial crew proposals in January 2014 and the CRS-2 proposals in December. "We have continued to improve the vehicle," he said. "The areas that were of concern we have addressed."
While developing the cargo version of Dream Chaser, Sirangelo said that the company has not abandoned plans for a crew version. "While we're leaning forward on the cargo autonomous version here, everything that we're doing in this vehicle is transferable to a future crew vehicle," he said.
Although Sierra Nevada lost the NASA commercial crew competition, it is still working towards the final milestone of its earlier commercial crew award from NASA, a second glide test of a Dream Chaser engineering test vehicle. That glide test is planned for later this year, Sirangelo said.
Sierra Nevada joins at least four other companies in the CRS-2 competition. On March 12, Lockheed Martin announced it submitted a CRS-2 proposal, offering a system that includes a reusable space tug. Boeing and Orbital ATK said in December that they also submitted CRS-2 bids.
SpaceX, which, like Orbital ATK, has contracts today to transport ISS cargo, had previously declined to confirm that they also bid on CRS-2. However, SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell, speaking at a luncheon at the conference March 17, tipped the company's hand.
"Oh, most definitely," she said when asked if the company bid on CRS-2. That proposal involves the use of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, but Shotwell did not provide additional details.

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