Technology  September 30, 2014

Sierra Nevada announces new project for its Dream Chaser

LOUISVILLE — Sierra Nevada Corp. on Tuesday morning announced a project that aims to keep its Dream Chaser spacecraft on the path to orbit despite being passed over recently for NASA funding to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

SNC, which bases its Space Systems Division in Louisville, presented the Global Project spaceflight program at the International Astronautical Congress in Toronto.

The new program will be a sort of commercial space program that SNC can customize for any client. It will offer government, commercial and academic clients from around the world access to low-Earth orbit missions aboard crewed or uncrewed variants of Dream Chaser. A country, for example, could contract with SNC to carry its astronauts to space or buy Dream Chaser vehicles to conduct its own missions.

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As part of the project, SNC has developed an astronaut training program based on NASA standards. The training could be conducted either in Louisville or in the country contracting with SNC.

“The Global Project offers a client the opportunity to leverage and expand its local technology and industrial base by engaging government research and development laboratories, aerospace industry and universities in developing payloads, vehicle modifications and ground-processing capabilities in support of the selected LEO missions,” said John Roth, vice president of business development for SNC’s Space Systems. “This program will literally make space accessible to people all over the world, enabling those who have only dreamed about going to space finally achieve it.”

It’s expected that the program could be operational as early as 2017 once atmosphere and orbital flight testing for Dream Chaser is complete.

SNC had been slated to launch Dream Chaser on its first unmanned orbital test flight by Nov. 1, 2016, with the first manned flight coming in 2017.

An SNC spokesperson said Tuesday that those dates are still the targets despite an announcement by NASA that SNC would miss out on the next round of funding in its Commercial Crew Program. SNC still has two milestones to fulfill under the previous round of funding received by NASA that will help with the ongoing development of Dream Chaser.

NASA earlier this month awarded Boeing and SpaceX a combined $6.8 billion to continue developing their own space capsules to carry American astronauts to space for the agency.

SNC announced on Friday that it would be appealing NASA’s decision to exclude the company from further funding for the program. SNC is also still applying to be part of NASA’s next Cargo Resupply Services contract.

LOUISVILLE — Sierra Nevada Corp. on Tuesday morning announced a project that aims to keep its Dream Chaser spacecraft on the path to orbit despite being passed over recently for NASA funding to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

SNC, which bases its Space Systems Division in Louisville, presented the Global Project spaceflight program at the International Astronautical Congress in Toronto.

The new program will be a sort of commercial space program that SNC can customize for any client. It will offer government, commercial and academic clients from around the world access to low-Earth orbit missions aboard crewed or uncrewed variants…

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