CENTENNIAL, Colo., June 12, 2013 (ULA PR) – United Launch Alliance (ULA) successfully completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and initial round of development testing for the Dual Engine Centaur in support of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Under Independent Research and Development (IRAD) funding, ULA is re-establishing the Dual Engine Centaur (DEC) configuration for performance and human space flight safety. Atlas V is capable of flying both a single and dual engine on the Centaur second stage, but most satellite missions require only a single engine due to the powerful capability of the Atlas V booster to loft the payload into orbit.
The BEAM module docked at the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)
This just in via Space News:
Sierra Nevada Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., got a nearly $2 million contract from NASA to build the berthing mechanism Bigelow Aerospace of North Las Vegas, Nev., will need to attach an experimental inflatable stowage module to the international space station (ISS) in 2015.
Under the terms of the 16-month firm-fixed-price contract awarded May 28, Sierra Nevada will build a passive common berthing mechanism — a piece of hardware that allows spacecraft to be berthed with the international space station — for the Bigelow Expanded Activity Module (BEAM)….
BEAM is now scheduled to fly to ISS in the summer of 2015 on the eighth of 12 contracted cargo missions Space Exploration Technologies Corp. is flying for NASA under a $1.6 billion contract it got in 2008. BEAM will be attached to ISS by a ground-operated robotic arm, rather than by space-walking astronauts.
Dream Chaser hybrid motor test on June 4, 2013. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)
Sparks, NV, June 6, 2013 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) announces the successful start of the latest phase of hybrid rocket motor qualification testing for the Dream Chaser® flight vehicle. SNC completed two tests this week at its rocket test facility in San Diego, Calif. A motor firing and ignition test was completed in preparation for upcoming motor tests under the current Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) award. SNC will conduct another series of hybrid motor firings to meet the next CCiCap contracted milestone beginning this summer.
Former NASA space shuttle astronaut Steve Lindsey, now Director of Flight Operations for Sierra Nevada Corporation, points out features of the firm’s prototype Dream Chaser flight test vehicle to NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden and Patrick Stoliker, deputy director of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. (Credit: NASA/Tom Tschida)
Sierra Nevada Commercial Crew Milestones Status
End of May 2013 Award Period: August 2012 – May 2014
No.
Description
Date
Status
Amount
1.
Program Implementation Plan Review. This is an initial meeting to describe the plan for implementing the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Program, to include management planning for achieving CDR; Design, Development, Testing, and Evaluation activities; risk management to include mitigation plans, and certification activities planned during the CCiCap Base Period.
August 2012
Complete
$30 Million
2.
Integrated System Baseline Review. The Integrated System Baseline Review (ISBR) demonstrates the maturity of the baseline CTS integrated vehicle and operations design of the Dream Chaser Space System (DCSS) consisting of Dream Chaser spacecraft, Atlas launch vehicle, Mission Systems, and Ground Systems supports proceeding with the detailed CTS design.
October 2012
Complete
$45 Million
3.
Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #1. The purpose of the Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #1 is to demonstrate that the systems safety analysis of the Dream Chaser Space System (DCSS) has been advanced to a preliminary maturity level, incorporating changes resulting from the Preliminary Design Review, The DCSS consists of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, launch vehicle, ground systems and mission systems.
January 2013
Complete
$20 Million
TOTAL TO DATE:
$95 Million
4.
Engineering Test Article Flight Testing. The purpose of these additional free flight test(s) is to reduce risk due to aerodynamic uncertainties in the subsonic approach and landing phase of flight and to mature the Dream Chaser aerodynamic database. A minimum of one and up to five additional Engineering Test Article free flight test(s) will be completed to characterize the aerodynamics and controllability of the Dream Chaser Orbital Vehicle outer mold line configuration during the subsonic approach and landing phase.
April 2013
Pending
$15 Million
5.
SNC Investment Financing #1. This funding represents SNC’s commitment for significant investing financing. SNC to provide program co-investment of [REDACTED].
July 2013
Pending
$12.5 Million
6.
Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #2. The purpose of the Integrated System Safety Analysis Review #2 is to demonstrate that the systems safety analysis of the Dream Chaser Space System.
October 2013
Pending
$20 Million
7.
Certification Plan Review. The Certification Plan Review defines the top level strategy for certification of the DCSS that meets the objectives for the ISS Design Reference Mission described in CCT-DRM-1110 Rev Basic. SNC shall conduct a review of the verification and validation activities planned for the Dream Chaser Space System (Dream Chaser spacecraft, Atlas launch vehicle, Ground and Mission Systems).
November 2013
Pending
$25 Million
8.
Wind Tunnel Testing. The purpose of this testing is to reduce risk on both the DC vehicle and the DC/Atlas stack by maturing the DC and DCiAtias aerodynamic databases, providing improved fidelity in Reynolds number effects and control surface interactions, and will help determine pre-CDR required updates to the OML or control surface geometry if required.
February 2014
Pending
$20 Million
9.
Risk Reduction and TRL Advancement Testing. The purpose of these tests is to significantly mature all Dream Chaser systems to or beyond a CDR level.
May 2014
Pending
$17 Million
9a.
Main Propulsion and RCS Risk Reduction and TRL Advancement Testing. The purpose of these tests is to significantly mature the Dream Chaser Main Propulsion System and Reaction Control System to or beyond a CDR level. Risk reduction and Technology Readiness Level improvement tests will be completed for these systems.
WASHINGTON, DC (NASA PR) – NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) partners continue to meet all scheduled CCiCap milestones, bringing the nation closer to its goal of having a U.S. capability for human access to space and ending reliance on foreign vehicles. Since August 2012, 15 of the 42 planned milestones have been successfully completed.
In March, Boeing completed the Launch Vehicle Adapter (LVA) Preliminary Design Review (PDR), demonstrating the preliminary design of the LVA met mission requirements with an acceptable risk and within the cost and schedule constraints.
Ed Hoffman, NASA’s chief Knowledge officer, and Lisa Colloredo, associate program manager for Commercial Crew Program at Kennedy, discuss the program’s formation and early results during the first “Masters with Masters” session. (Credit: NASA)
By Steven Siceloff NASA’s Kennedy Space Center
NASA is on the verge of a dramatic and exciting era of spaceflight that will draw on private companies’ innovations in using the agency’s expertise to send astronauts into orbit, managers of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program told a group of employees at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Whether astronauts ultimately fly aboard a Boeing or SpaceX capsule or the winged Dream Chaser under development by Sierra Nevada Corporation – or all three – the steps that get to that point did not come about by accident, said Ed Mango, program manager of CCP.
NASA astronaut Jack Fischer flies a simulated Sierra Nevada Corporation Dream Chaser landing in the Cockpit Motion Facility at NASA’s Langley Flight Research Center. (Credit: NASA/David C. Bowman)
By Joe Atkinson NASA’s Langley Flight Research Center
Though U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. and recently minted NASA astronaut Jack Fischer hopes to go to space one day, he spent an entire day in May coming back to Earth.
Fischer was one of four astronauts who visited the Cockpit Motion Facility at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., May 15-17 to fly a simulation of the Dream Chaser, a lifting-body spacecraft developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) of Colorado Springs, Colo. He was joined by fellow NASA astronauts Rex Walheim, Gregory Johnson and Scott Tingle.
NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden discusses the role and capabilities of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems’ Dream Chaser flight vehicle at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center. (Credit: NASA/Ken Ulbrich
EDWARDS AFB, Calif. (NASA PR) — NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden visited the agency’s Dryden Flight Research Center on Wednesday, May 22, taking the opportunity to see the Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Dream Chaser test vehicle that had arrived at the center a week earlier.
Video Caption: Cheryl McPhillips, the NASA Commercial Crew Program partner manager for Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), discusses the uniqueness of the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft and the milestones SNC plans to meet during the agency’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative.
Video Caption: Jack Fischer was one of four NASA astronauts to fly approach and landing simulations of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spacecraft at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. The three-day simulations evaluated the spacecraft’s subsonic handling in support of NASA Commercial Crew Program efforts.
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