Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Dream Chaser spacecraft has undergone a ‘captive carry’ test, taking the reusable vehicle a step closer to orbital flight.
Designed primarily to ferry cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS), Dream Chaser will be capable of launch on Atlas V and Ariane 5 rockets. The spacecraft, which resembles a miniature space shuttle, can then travel autonomously under its own power once in orbit, docking with the ISS. After re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, Dream Chaser glides to the ground to make a conventional runway landing. According to SNC, each vehicle could be reused more than 15 times.
The latest step in the test programme saw the Dream Chaser carried to flight test altitude by a Chinook helicopter. It remained attached to the chopper throughout, but the flight allowed the SNC ground team to send commands to Dream Chaser, monitor performance and collect critical data ahead of the craft’s first free flight test.
“We are very pleased with results from the captive carry test, and everything we have seen points to a successful test with useful data for the next round of testing,” said Lee “Bru” Archambault, SNC’s director of flight operations for the Dream Chaser programme.
A second captive carry test is planned for the coming months, with the first free flight test due to take place before the end of 2017. While these tests will focus on uncrewed flights, a second variant of Dream Chaser is under development for crewed missions. Despite being just 9m long, the vehicle will be able to carry up to seven astronauts, the same number as the Space Shuttle.
“This test is another indication the Dream Chaser is on track for meeting our key milestones on the way to orbital spaceflight,” said Steve Lindsey, vice president of Space Exploration Systems for SNC.
“We are excited to move through the remaining ground and flight testing to help inform our CRS2 (Commercial Resupply Services 2) orbital vehicle design and upcoming production.”
I do NOT wish to pour cold-water upon an amazing technical advance: BUT perhaps this effort needs to be more directed to those aspects of life upon our planet earth which at present are being disturbed and distressed by cold-water already. [The Gulf of Mexico for example?]
Can’t we do both? Scientific research gets a tiny fraction of global spending. If you think spending priority is wrong, blame military spending.
For some reason I missed this last week. I have nothing but admiration for the people and the companies who are willing to risk so much to further the possibilities for us all. Might not seem like it now but mankind need to conquer space or at least be comfortable while spending long periods within it. The shuttle Orbiter was 37m long and hade a crew of 8, this is only 9m and has a crew of 7, real progress. Good luck to them.
While Dream Chaser sounds perfect for landing passengers, the present version is a cargo only. The expendable cargo portion with docking port and solar panels does not return to earth with Dream Chaser, it is jettisoned and burns up in the atmosphere. Dream Chaser does not have an ascent engine or fuel, so what is being returned for reuse?