Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser spacecraft composite airframe unveiled

The airframe for the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser spacecraft at a Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

Credit: Lockheed Martin

The world has gotten its first look at the body of a space plane due to launch into orbit in 2016.

The composite airframe of Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser space plane, which is designed to carry astronauts into space, was revealed on Aug. 1.

The structure will be used in Dream Chaser's first orbital test flight, which is scheduled for November 2016, SNC representatives said.

"We are able to tailor our best manufacturing processes, and our innovative technology from across the corporation to fit the needs of the Dream Chaser program," Jim Crocker, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s space systems company civil space line of business, said in a statement.



Lockheed Martin builds Dream Chaser's airframe for Sierra Nevada. Lockheed began manufacturing the structure earlier this year at the Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana, which is a part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. Assembly is taking place at a Lockheed facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

Sierra Nevada hopes that NASA chooses Dream Chaser to ferry its astronauts to and from the International Space Station, beginning in 2017.

The agency is encouraging the development of private American astronaut taxis to fill the shoes of the space shuttle, which retired in 2011.

SNC is receiving money from NASA under an agency Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement, and so far has 92 percent of the funds promised.

A prototype of the Dream Chaser space plane built by Sierra Nevada Space Systems is seen at dawn at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California during its drop-test campaign. 

Credit: Sierra Nevada Space Systems

Later this year, NASA is expected to announce the next stage of funding in the commercial crew program. It is unclear if all three participating funded companies (which also include Boeing and SpaceX) will receive money at that stage.

In late July, SNC also announced that Dream Chaser had passed several major systems tests, and that it had signed two agreements for educational and technological projects related to the spacecraft.

The Nevada-based firm has finished risk reduction and technology readiness testing on systems for the crew, environmental control and life support, structures and thermal control and protection.

This comes about a month after Sierra Nevada finished other tests on its propulsion and reaction control systems.

Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser: Wings and Tail ground testing

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser successfully rolls through two tow tests at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California in preparation for future flight testing later this year.

Sierra Nevada Corporation's winged Dream Chaser engineering test vehicle is moving forward with a series of ground tests at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California that will soon lead to dramatic aerial flight tests throughout 2013.

Pathfinding tow tests on Dryden's concrete runway aim to validate the performance of the vehicles' nose skid, brakes, tires and other systems to prove that it can safely land an astronaut crew after surviving the searing re-entry from Earth orbit.

The Dream Chaser is one of the three types of private sector 'space taxis' being developed with NASA seed money to restore America's capability to blast humans to Earth orbit from American soil – a capability which was totally lost following the forced shutdown of NASA's Space Shuttle program in 2011.

For the initial ground tests, the engineering test article was pulled by a tow truck at 10 and 20 MPH. Later this month tow speeds will be ramped up to 40 to 60 MPH.

Final assembly of the Dream Chaser test vehicle was completed at Dryden with installation of the wings and tail, following shipment from SNC's Space Systems headquarters in Louisville, Colo.

Watch this exciting minute-long, time-lapse video showing attachment of the wings and tail:



In the next phase later this year, Sierra Nevada will conduct airborne captive carry tests using an Erickson Skycrane helicopter.

Atmospheric drop tests of the engineering test vehicle in an autonomous free flight mode, for Approach and Landing Tests (ALT), will follow to check the aerodynamic handling.

The engineering test article is a full sized vehicle.

Dream Chaser is a reusable mini shuttle that launches from the Florida Space Coast atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and lands on the shuttle landing facility (SLF) runway at the Kennedy Space Center, like the Space Shuttle.

Dream Chaser awaits launch atop Atlas V rocket.

"It's not outfitted for orbital flight. It is outfitted for atmospheric flight tests," said Marc Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada Corp. vice president and SNC Space Systems chairman.

"The best analogy is that it's very similar to what NASA did in the shuttle program with the Enterprise. We are creating a vehicle that is able to make a significant number of flights. One whose design would feed or filter into the final vehicle, for orbital flight," Sirangelo told reporters.

Companies building space taxis get funding boost from NASA

Boeing CST-100

NASA announced August 3 a further round of funding for three US companies developing astronaut transportation.  

SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corporation have all been awarded new Space Act Agreements under NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) program that provides each company with additional cash for the development of their spacecraft.

NASA, which has not been able to transport crew to the International Space Station since the retirement of the Space Shuttle last year, is keen to regain human spaceflight capability as soon as possible.

NASA boss Charles Bolden declared: "We have selected three companies that will help keep us on track to end the outsourcing of human spaceflight and create high-paying jobs in Florida and elsewhere across the country."

Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser

All three companies awarded new agreements have already been developing their space taxis with the help of NASA's Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Program.

Space Exploration Technologies - SpaceX - is building a crewed version of its Dragon capsule and under its new CCiCap agreement will benefit from an injection of $440 million from NASA.

Dragon was always conceived as a vehicle that could take crew as well as cargo, and is the only spacecraft in the commercial crew program that has been put into orbit.

Furthermore, it also berthed successfully with the space station on its second orbital flight in May 2012, proving its rendezvous technology. The company plans to have its first manned flight by 2015.

Dragon will be able to carry seven astronauts and, if SpaceX succeeds with its propulsive landing system, will be able to land on its legs rather than in the ocean.

Elon Musk, the founder, CEO and Chief Designer of SpaceX, said: “This is a decisive milestone in human spaceflight and sets an exciting course for the next phase of American space exploration. SpaceX, along with our partners at NASA, will continue to push the boundaries of space technology to develop the safest, most advanced crew vehicle ever flown.”

SpaceX Dragon