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.

Poised on the cusp of these new systems, we run the risk of being penny wise and pound foolish as we make the same mistake that doomed the space shuttle to much higher cost operations: starving a spacecraft development program in the name of saving a few pennies for today’s budget bottom line resulting in the compromised systems that, if they fly at all, will not be cheap enough to enable business in space….

Currently, the commercial space effort stands uncomfortably close to the brink of financial starvation. Deep space transportation development is being stretched out by similar restrictions. Business is looking to see if the government is serious about providing the critical support or whether this effort will be wasted as so many earlier government programs which withered away on the very cusp of success: National Launch System, Orbital Space Plane, and others.

Hale’s full testimony is reproduced after the break.

Testimony of N. Wayne Hale, Jr.
before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
May 16, 2013

I thank the committee for inviting me to testify concerning the growth of the space industry including the private sector space transportation.

In the interest of full disclosure, I am hardly a disinterested party in this topic. I am and have always been a passionate believer that space exploration and the industries that may derive from it will benefit humanity in ways beyond our imagining. I have spent most of my professional life working in the large government space programs of the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. During those years I have seen NASA at its very best and at its worst. The hard working dedication of my colleagues at NASA personnel is nothing short of phenomenal, and their talent and creativity is second to none. However, their endeavors have frequently been stymied due to the inherent bureaucratic inefficiencies of government work and the frequent shifts in priorities and funding that whipsaw most space initiatives. This has led me to believe there must be a better way to develop and operate space systems.

In my last assignment before retirement from government service, I worked with Frank Bauer, the Chief Engineer of the Exploration Systems Directorate, to define the management philosophy, protocols, and processes for the then new Commercial Crew Program within NASA. After my retirement, my work has continued as a consultant. My company, Special Aerospace Services,and I are paid advisors to a number of entities involved in the commercial crew and commercial space cargo enterprises. And I have volunteered my time to work with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation to establish safety, management, and engineering standards for all the members of this fledgling industry. So the committee can see that I am hardly a disinterested party and should weigh my testimony as such.

Establishing good, effective safety, engineering, and management standards in a voluntary industry association is the hallmark of any reputable and mature industry. I am pleased to report that the CSF is making good progress in setting up voluntary processes which will ensure public safety and promote general success in this difficult business. Industry group standards can alleviate the need for government regulations by allowing the members of a trade association to tailor best practices specifically for their industry. Evolution of these industry standards inevitably proceeds more rapidly than the development of government regulations and can therefore take rapid advantage of best practices as they emerge.

The most singularly vexing problem with space flight is the high cost of getting to low earth orbit. As the noted science fiction writer Robert Heinlein once observed, ‘when you are in earth orbit you are half way to anywhere in the universe’ which accurately reflects the physics of the
situation.

The lack of low cost transportation to that point located just above the earth’s atmosphere and moving at 17,500 mph forward velocity has prevented potential space entrepreneurs more than any other factor. Hundreds of potential business opportunities in the limitless resources of the solar system have floundered on the high cost of transportation to low earth orbit. Asteroid mining, energy production, zero gravity manufacturing are all within our grasp technologically but will not be profitable until reliable and reasonably affordable transportation systems are in place.

New systems for transportation to low earth orbit have enormously high development costs. Private investors, with a few exceptions, are loath to provide the capital needed to develop low earth orbit transportation without clear and immediate business ready to purchase tickets.

So we are in a ‘chicken or the egg’ paradox. Space business needs low cost transportation to become profitable, while potential private transportation
services need established business to justify the cost of construction. This is not the first time that America has been in this situation. Both the early railroads and fledgling air transportation industries found themselves becalmed in similar straits. In both these cases, and others, the federal taxpayers stepped in to provide critical resources to help new industries develop. Those investments have been paid back myriad-fold in tax revenues when the new industries caught fire and provided transportation systems that were the envy of the world.

NASA and its predecessor agency the NACA provided needed aeronautical research to make air transportation as inexpensive and safe as we find it today. The federal investment in aeronautics development has paid off handsomely in the development of a multi-billion dollar industry. Indeed, one of the largest sectors of net exports in the American economy is aerospace with billion dollar sales a common occurrence.

The history of space flight – after the first early steps to demonstrate that space flight was even possible – has been marked with the goal of decreasing the cost of transportation to low earth orbit. In my home I have an entire shelf of books populated by volumes of studies and proposals from a multitude of thinkers spread over decades on that subject: how to provide reliable safe space transportation on the cheap.

The space system that consumed much of my professional career, the space shuttle, was established to achieve just such a low cost goal. But the technologies of the 1970s, harnessed to a risk adverse government apparatus resulted in a system that was only slightly less expensive than those which went before.

In the last decade, the United States embarked on a bold new experiment to turn over the creative reins of spacecraft development to entrepreneurial, nimble, flexible, creative private commercial teams. Bolstered with a modicum of taxpayer resources, these businesses have leveraged private investment to create the critical mass to develop new, much cheaper transportation systems. We see the first fruits of success today with cargo carrying craft: the SpaceX Falcon and Dragon, and the Orbital Antares and Cygnus. These cargo carrying privately developed vehicles are starting to supply our government outpost, the International Space Station. In future years others, the Boeing CST-100 and the Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser will be added to the fleet to carry human beings as well as cargo.

Poised on the cusp of these new systems, we run the risk of being penny wise and pound foolish as we make the same mistake that doomed the space shuttle to much higher cost operations: starving a spacecraft development program in the name of saving a few pennies for today’s budget bottom line resulting in the compromised systems that, if they fly at all, will not be cheap enough to enable business in space.

This is not to devalue the development of truly deep space exploration systems by the government. Those high risk, high cost systems payback over such are long term that they would never be funded by private investment. But, like the expenses incurred by Lewis and Clark, Captain Zebulon Pike, and a host of other government expeditions in our history, the payback from exploration will be enormous for both the country and for all of humanity. Just at a more distant point in the future than business spreadsheets normally run. The SLS and the MPCV should be developed in conjunction with the commercial low earth orbit transportation systems. Flying to cis-lunar space to inspect a captured asteroid is an engineering and operations test worthy of a first deep space mission. But that mission can only be a first step. More should follow.

The commercial systems will enable the deep space exploration initiative in substantial ways. First of all because the ISS is our space test laboratory for the technologies and systems that deep space exploration will need. Operation in space, aboard the ISS, is the most effective means to wring out life support, communications, propulsion, and other technologies. Commercial transportation of cargo and crews to the ISS directly support deep space systems development. As deep space exploration proceeds, commercial cargo and crew vehicles will likely be called upon to aid with assembly and fuel delivery to low earth orbit where we will finalize preparations to head into the vast deep. Cost effective commercial transportation to low earth orbit can make a vital difference in equipping the deep space fleet.

So the two efforts go hand in hand. Funding equity between the two programs is necessary to ensure the timely success of both. Currently, the commercial space effort stands uncomfortably close to the brink of financial starvation. Deep space transportation development is being stretched out by similar restrictions. Business is looking to see if the government is serious about providing the critical support or whether this effort will be wasted as so many earlier government programs which withered away on the very cusp of success: National Launch System, Orbital Space Plane, and others.

I urge the Congress to fully fund these vital activities, both the commercial crew program and the exploration systems. They will allow America and American industry to lead in the exploration and development of human activity in our solar system. When the historians of the future look back on our era, they will recognize the movement of humanity from planet earth into the solar system as the pivotal event of our times. There is no project that is so important for the long term success of humankind. I would hope that those historians record that at this crossroad of history that a creative, enterprising, farsighted nation called America led the way.

The prizes both economic and historic are too great to bypass. If America does not lead in these enterprises, somebody else will. And the leader will reap the greatest rewards both in the near term and in the longer term.

For all our limitations, America is a very rich country. There are many things which America needs to do for the present moment: provide for a strong military to protect us in a dangerous world, educate our children, care for our elderly and infirm, revitalize our transportation infrastructure of roads, bridges, airports, and more. All of these activities are of vital importance today. Space exploration is about the future. Space exploration is possibly the only line item in the federal budget that is all about the future. Currently we spend one half of one percent of our nation’s treasure on the future. Isn’t the future worth that investment?

Dream Chaser cockpit simulator. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)

HAMPTON, Va. (NASA PR) – A group of NASA astronauts will be at NASA’s Langley Research Center this week to fly in a simulator that is being used to help evaluate the subsonic handling characteristics of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems’ Dream Chaser spacecraft.
The simulation is of an approach to — and landing at — Edwards Air Force Base in California — the final 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) and 60 seconds of a future Dream Chaser flight. The astronauts will evaluate how well the spacecraft would handle in a number of different atmospheric conditions as well as assess its guidance and navigation performance.

NASA Langley developed the flight control laws that are being used in its motion-based Research Flight Deck simulator, while Draper Laboratory engineers in Houston, Texas, and Cambridge, Mass., developed the guidance and navigation system software.

Reporters are invited to observe a simulation on Thursday, May 16, at 2 p.m.

The Dream Chaser is based on Langley’s Horizontal Lander (HL-20) lifting body vehicle design. HL-20 was a successor to the earlier HL-10 lifting body reentry vehicle concept developed by Langley during the 1960s, but was influenced by a Soviet era space plane design. Langley engineers had devised a development plan for the HL-20 in the 1980s and 90s, creating pilot landing scenarios in simulators, testing designs in wind tunnels and even building a full-scale model — with the help of universities — to study crew challenges.

The control laws being used in the current simulation were refined for the HL-20, but Langley engineers say they date back to research done during the development of the Space Shuttle in the 1970s.

SNC is developing its Dream Chaser Space System under NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers.

NASA Langley has collaborated with SNC in the design and development of the Dream Chaser Space System for six years.

For more information about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, visit:

www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

For more information about NASA’s Langley Research Center, go to:

http://www.nasa.gov/langley

SNC’s Dream Chaser test flight craft is hauled across the bed of Rogers Dry Lake at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center on May 15. (Credit: NASA/Tom Tschida)

By Candrea Thomas
NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems Dream Chaser flight vehicle arrived at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., Wednesday to begin tests of its flight and runway landing systems.

The tests are part of pre-negotiated, paid-for-performance milestones with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is facilitating U.S.-led companies’ development of spacecraft and rockets that can launch from American soil. The overall goal of CCP is to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective U.S. human access to and from the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit.
Tests at Dryden will include tow, captive-carry and free-flight tests of the Dream Chaser. A truck will tow the craft down a runway to validate performance of the nose strut, brakes and tires. The captive-carry flights will further examine the loads it will encounter during flight as it is carried by an Erickson Skycrane helicopter. The free flight later this year will test Dream Chaser’s aerodynamics through landing.

Meanwhile, on the east coast, several NASA astronauts will be at the agency’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., this week to fly simulations of a Dream Chaser approach and landing to help evaluate the spacecraft’s subsonic handling. The test will measure how well the spacecraft would handle in a number of different atmospheric conditions and assess its guidance and navigation performance.

“Unique public-private partnerships like the one between NASA and Sierra Nevada Corporation are creating an industry capable of building the next generation of rockets and spacecraft that will carry U.S. astronauts to the scientific proving ground of low-Earth orbit,” said William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations in Washington. “NASA centers around the country paved the way for 50 years of American human spaceflight, and they’re actively working with our partners to test innovative commercial space systems that will continue to ensure American leadership in exploration and discovery.”

The Dream Chaser Space System is based on Langley’s Horizontal Lander HL-20 lifting body design concept. The design builds on years of analysis and wind tunnel testing by Langley engineers during the 1980s and 1990s. Langley and SNC joined forces six years ago to update the HL-20 design in the Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle. In those years SNC has worked to refine the spacecraft design. SNC will continue to test models in Langley wind tunnels. Langley researchers also helped develop a cockpit simulator at SNC’s facility in Louisville, Colo., and the flight simulations being assessed at the center.

NASA is partnered with SNC, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) and The Boeing Company to meet CCP milestones for integrated crew transportation systems under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative. Advances made by these companies under their funded Space Act Agreements ultimately are intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial companies.

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration in the solar system.

For more information about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Dream Chaser flight vehicle prepares for
shipment to NASA Dryden.(Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)

Sparks, NV, May 13, 2013 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems has completed assembly and testing of the Dream Chaser® spacecraft in preparation for shipping the flight vehicle from SNC’s Space Systems headquarters in Louisville, Colo., to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Upon arrival at NASA Dryden, the Dream Chaser will continue a series of tests, including runway tow, ground resonance, and a captive carry flight. These tests will be completed before the Dream Chaser flight vehicle’s first autonomous free flight Approach and Landing Test (ALT).

“NASA Dryden has always played a vital role in the testing of American flight vehicles,” said Mark Sirangelo head of SNC’s Space Systems “As the Dream Chaser program takes flight, this unique opportunity to conduct our tests at the same location as the Space Shuttle begin its flight brings great pride to our team. We are one step closer to returning U.S. astronauts on a U.S. vehicle to the International Space Station and in doing so continuing the long standing and proud legacy that was the Space Shuttle program.”

The flight tests will help SNC to determine the glide and landing characteristics of the Dream Chaser, the only lifting body vehicle funded under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. A similar program was completed for the iconic Space Shuttle in 1977 at NASA Dryden when the Space Shuttle Enterprise conducted an ALT as a critical flight test milestone.

In describing the test series Jim Voss, SNC’s vice president of Space Exploration Systems said, “This will be the first full scale flight test of the Dream Chaser lifting body and will demonstrate the unique capability of our spacecraft to land on a runway. Other flight tests will follow to validate the aerodynamic data used to control the vehicle in the atmosphere when it returns from space. This is a huge step forward for the SNC and NASA teams towards providing our nation with safe and reliable transportation to the International Space Station.”

About Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems business area headquartered in Louisville, Colo., designs and manufactures advanced spacecraft, space vehicles, rocket motors and spacecraft subsystems and components for the US Government, commercial customers as well as for the international market. SNC’s Space Systems has more than 25 years of space heritage in space and has participated in over 400 successful space missions through the delivery of over 4,000 systems, subsystems and components. During its history, SNC’s Space Systems has concluded over 70 programs for NASA and over 50 other clients.

For more information about SS visit www.sncspace.com.

About Sierra Nevada Corporation

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), headquartered in Sparks, Nev., is one of America’s fastest growing private companies based on its significant expansion and reputation for rapid, innovative, and agile technology solutions in electronics, aerospace, avionics, space, propulsion, micro-satellite, aircraft, communications systems and solar energy. Under the leadership of CEO Fatih Ozmen and President Eren Ozmen, SNC employs over 2,500 people in 30 locations in 16 states. SNC’s six unique business areas are dedicated to providing leading-edge solutions to SNC’s dynamic customer base.

SNC is also the Top Woman-Owned Federal Contractor in the United States. Over the last 30 years under the Ozmen’s leadership, SNC has remained focused on providing its customers the very best in diversified technologies to meet their needs and has a strong and proven track record of success. The company continues to focus its growth on the commercial sector through internal advancements and outside acquisitions, including the emerging markets of renewable energy, telemedicine, nanotechnology, cyber and net-centric operations.

For more information on SNC visit www.sncorp.com.

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser shuttle. (Credit: Sierra Nevada)

WASHINGTON (NASA PR) – Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems of Louisville, Colo., has completed its first major, comprehensive safety review of its Dream Chaser Space System. This is the company’s latest paid-for-performance milestone with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is working with commercial space partners to develop capabilities to launch U.S. astronauts from American soil in the next few years.

The Integrated Systems Safety Analysis Review provided NASA with hazard reports and safety and reliability plans for the major components of the company’s integrated crew transportation system, including the Dream Chaser spacecraft, United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, and flight and ground systems.

“Safety review milestones are critical to ensuring safety and reliability techniques and methods are incorporated into space systems design,” said Ed Mango, NASA’s CCP manager. “NASA’s participation in these reviews provides our partners with critical design experiences from past human spaceflight activities.”

SNC is developing its Dream Chaser Space System under NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative, which is intended to lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers.

“Dream Chaser is making substantial progress toward flight with the help of our NASA team,” said Mark Sirangelo, head of SNC’s Space Systems. “The ability to openly exchange information through the work on these CCiCap milestones is invaluable for many reasons, such as communicating Dream Chaser development plans and receiving timely feedback from NASA, all of which help to improve our design and maximize safety and reliability. As we begin our flight test program we have a better and stronger program due to our partnership with NASA.”

A Dream Chaser engineering test craft is being prepared for shipment to NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California this month for its first free-flight test later this year at the center. The test will provide data on the winged spacecraft’s aerodynamic performance during approach and landing on a traditional runway.

For more information about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Editor’s Note: Sierra Nevada is running significantly behind on flight testing. The original plan was to conduct flights tests of the Dream Chaser engineering test article in April. The milestones and schedule is shown below.

Sierra Nevada Commercial Crew Milestones

Petrified wood (Credit: Jon Sullivan)

By Douglas Messier
Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

On Sunday, I dropped by Bob’s Army Navy Store in Mojave, hoping to pick up a pair of good binoculars for the SpaceShipTwo flight scheduled for the next day. Although my search was in vain, I did visit the area on the west side of the building where there are a variety of rocks for sale.

There were rocks of every kind: large rocks and small rocks, crystals, rocks with scaly lizards scurrying underneath to escape from someone who was equally afraid of them. I was fascinated. I had no idea there were that many types of rocks. Or that people would want to buy such things in large numbers. What would they use them for? I was stumped.

What really caught my interest, though, was the petrified wood.

There were entire piles of these rocks, the remains of trees that had turned to stone after their organic material had been replaced by minerals. They had somehow retained their original appearance as living beings even though everything that made them alive was sucked out of them eons ago. It was cool.

I recalled all this two days later when I read the latest commercial crew news from NASA. The latest update led me to believe that something similar has happened in Congress, with some mysterious process turning the logic centers in the brains of Congress representatives to stone. They have the appearance of living, thinking human beings capable of complex problem solving, but their political positions have somehow become frozen in place.

What resulted in this sad conclusion was the following piece of news:

NASA has signed a $424 million modification to its contract with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for full crew transportation services to the International Space Station in 2016 with return and rescue services extending through June 2017.

The reason for this contract extension is very simply: Congress has repeated cut the Obama Administration’s request for the Commercial Crew program, typically by $300 to $400 million each year. With each reduction now, there is yet another delay in fielding crew vehicles and an expenditure of a similar amount on the back end to ensure our astronauts can reach the space station.

Why Congressmen are so intent on paying Russian contractors for these services rather than funding American companies such as Boeing, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corporation to develop the same capability is a big mystery. It has mystified me for years.

My best guess is that Congress is both skeptical of the viability of commercial crew and petrified (in an emotional and political sense) of the changes the program could bring if does succeed. People who are equally afraid of both success and failure have a tendency to freeze. They don’t take risks and cling to what they know best — however outdated, self-defeating and short-sighted it might be.

Congress is clearly stuck in that very position. Sadly, there is little indication that the recent successes of SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation in the commercial cargo program has swayed very many people in Congress that commercial crew can succeed. I might be wrong on that assessment, but the early statements on the FY 2014 budget are not encouraging.

SpaceShipTwo in its first powered flight over Mojave.

Sparks, NV, April 29, 2013 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems is proud to announce that its Hybrid Rocket Motor propelled Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) sub-orbital vehicle on its first ever powered flight. SNC’s hybrid propulsion system is the largest hybrid ever used for space vehicle propulsion.

SNC manufactures two major subsystems on the SpaceShipTwo vehicle including the main oxidizer valve and the hybrid rocket motor, plus nitrous oxide dump system and nitrous oxide pressurization system control valves.

Upon reaching 47,000 feet altitude and approximately 45 minutes into the flight, SS2 was released from the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane. After cross-checking data and verifying stable control, the pilots triggered ignition of the rocket motor, causing the main oxidizer valve to open and igniters to fire within the fuel case. At this point, SS2 was propelled forward and upward to a maximum altitude of 55,000 feet. The entire engine burn lasted 16 seconds, as planned. During this time, SS2 went supersonic, achieving Mach 1.2.

“The rocket motor ignition went as planned, with the expected burn duration, good engine performance and solid vehicle handling qualities throughout,” said Virgin Galactic president and CEO George Whitesides. “The successful outcome of this test marks a pivotal point for our program. We will now embark on a handful of similar powered flight tests, and then make our first test flight to space.”

SNC’s hybrid rocket systems offer a safe, high performing, and non-toxic alternative to solid and hydrazine liquid propulsion systems. As the rocket motor fuel is industrial rubber, there are no special handling or transportation requirements, thereby greatly reducing the lifecycle cost to our customers.

“I am enormously proud of our team and motor, thrilled to be part of space history, thankful to be in a country where such entrepreneurship is possible and humbled to be part of the dawn of the next era of flight,” said Mark Sirangelo, head of SNC’s Space Systems.

“This first powered flight test marks a historic day on the path to commercial passenger space flight. SNC’s Space Systems is proud to be a part of that success and proves that SNC’s safe, non-toxic hybrid propulsion systems can be scaled to meet the needs of many applications,” said Michael Borck, SNC’s director of programs.

The hybrid rocket motor and the oxidizer valve system are produced in SNC’s high rate manufacturing facility located in Poway, Calif., in conjunction with Scaled Composites of Mojave, Cali. This location is currently producing motors for both SpaceShipTwo and SNC’s own Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle.

For more information about Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo program visit www.virgingalactic.com/

About Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems business area headquartered in Louisville, Colo., designs and manufactures advanced spacecraft, space vehicles, rocket motors and spacecraft subsystems and components for the US Government, commercial customers as well as for the international market. SNC’s Space Systems has more than 25 years of space heritage in space and has participated in over 400 successful space missions through the delivery of over 4,000 systems, subsystems and components. During its history, SNC’s Space Systems has concluded over 70 programs for NASA and over 50 other clients. For more information about SS visit www.sncspace.com.

About Sierra Nevada Corporation

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), headquartered in Sparks, Nev., is one of America’s fastest growing private companies based on its significant expansion and reputation for rapid, innovative, and agile technology solutions in electronics, aerospace, avionics, space, propulsion, micro-satellite, aircraft, communications systems and solar energy. Under the leadership of CEO Fatih Ozmen and President Eren Ozmen, SNC employs over 2,500 people in 30 locations in 16 states. SNC’s six unique business areas are dedicated to providing leading-edge solutions to SNC’s dynamic customer base.

SNC is also the Top Woman-Owned Federal Contractor in the United States. Over the last 30 years under the Ozmen’s leadership, SNC has remained focused on providing its customers the very best in diversified technologies to meet their needs and has a strong and proven track record of success. The company continues to focus its growth on the commercial sector through internal advancements and outside acquisitions, including the emerging markets of renewable energy, telemedicine, nanotechnology, cyber and net-centric operations. For more information on SNC visit www.sncorp.com.

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser shuttle. (Credit: Sierra Nevada)

SPARKS, Nev., April 25, 2013 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Space Systems has successfully completed two milestones as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program.

SNC completed the Program Implementation Review, providing NASA with detailed plans for advancing the Dream Chaser® crew transportation system towards a critical design state. SNC also completed an Integrated System Baseline Review that communicated the post-Preliminary Design Review maturity of the baseline Dream Chaser® orbital crew vehicle, mission systems, ground systems, and United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V launch vehicle.

“The successful completion of these milestones resulted in affirmation that the Dream Chaser® Space System design meets its mission requirements as we work towards rebuilding the United States’ capability to fly astronauts into low Earth orbit,” said Jim Voss, vice president of SNC’s Space Exploration Systems. “Both CCiCap milestones offered us the opportunity to communicate SNC’s detailed development plans, as well as to receive and incorporate NASA’s comments and feedback.”

SNC was awarded $212.5 million by NASA in August 2012 and to date has received over $330 million by NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.  The funding represents the agency’s co-investment in furthering the development of the Dream Chaser® Space System design to carry crew and critical cargo to and from the International Space Station. The Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle is scheduled to complete its first free flight test in conjunction with NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in Calif., in 2013.

Editor’s Note:  The two milestones mentioned here were completed last year. Flight tests are next on the schedule, but it appears as if they are not going to take place in April as originally scheduled.

CCP Spotlight on Development

NASA’s International Space Station Program (ISS) Program is gearing up for a review early this month about the docking system spacecraft could use for future missions to the space station, including the companies working with the agency’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

Plans call for the NASA Docking System (NDS) design to be made available to all U.S.-based crew-carrying spacecraft docking with the space station in the future. The docking system will be able to transfer power, data, commands, air and communications between the two craft as they orbit the Earth.

CCP’s three Certification Products Contract (CPC) contractors, The Boeing Company, Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), will be able to look at the results of the review and provide feedback on how they plan to incorporate the NDS into their spacecraft.

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems is putting the Engineering Test Article of its Dream Chaser through a Ground Resonance Test at the company’s facilities. The testing is standard for aircraft and helicopters and confirms that vibrations from machinery inside the craft won’t make it shake itself apart.

Preparations for wind tunnel testing continue on track following a recent test readiness review with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP). The testing, scheduled for later this month then in May and June, is tied to one of the milestones SNC will meet to reduce risk in spacecraft designs during the agency’s Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative.

The Dream Chaser is being developed as a private spacecraft that can carry crews into low-Earth orbit and potentially the International Space Station by mid-decade.

To learn more about CCP and its partners, visit www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew

Sierra Nevada Commercial Crew Milestones

Dream Chaser hybrid motor test firing. (Credit: Sierra Nevada Corporation)

CCP Spotlight on Development
Via NASA

Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Space Systems recently hosted discussions with NASA about the non-toxic propulsion systems that would power the Dream Chaser spacecraft’s main and reaction control systems.

The reaction control system will give the spacecraft the ability to steer in space by providing small amounts of directional thrust for docking with the International Space Station. The main propulsion system is much more powerful, and generally capable of providing thrust in one direction for aborts or orbital insertion burns.

SNC is working toward a milestone to test the propulsion systems during its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) partnership with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

Lee Archambault

HOUSTON (NASA PR) – NASA astronaut Lee Archambault is leaving the agency, ending a 15-year career that included more than 27 days in space, including a flight as commander of space shuttle Discovery.

Archambault will join Sierra Nevada Corp. as a systems engineer and test pilot. He will work on the company’s Dream Chaser Space System, being developed in conjunction with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

Archambault was the pilot of space shuttle Atlantis on STS-117 in 2007, a mission vital to the construction of the International Space Station. Two years later he commanded the space shuttle Discovery on STS-119.

“Lee’s leadership and experience have been assets to our office,” said Bob Behnken, chief of the Astronaut Office. “In his role as chief of our Exploration Branch, he’s pushed for excellence in the design of our next crew vehicles as we progress during this critical development phase. His combination of technical knowledge, operational experience and critical thinking will be very hard to replace.”

Archambault earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Illinois-Urbana. He then served in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot. He flew combat missions in the Middle East during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.

Archambault joined NASA as an Air Force astronaut in 1998. He filled many technical roles during his NASA career including working as a support astronaut at Kennedy Space Center, a capsule communicator (CAPCOM) for STS-121 and finally serving within the Astronaut Office as the chief of the Exploration Branch.

Archambault retired from the U.S. Air Force as a colonel in 2012 after more than 27 years of service. He has logged more than 5,000 flight hours in more than 30 types of aircraft.

For Archambault’s complete biography, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/VznHe6

Washington D.C.

“We expect the 2013 meeting to be the most informative opportunity yet for researchers and educators wishing to fly suborbital experiments in space. Presentation abstracts contributed by the research and education community can be submitted to our web site anytime though March 7,” said meeting convener and program committee chair Alan Stern.
The conference includes tours of local aerospace facilities at Ball Aerospace and Sierra Nevada Corporation. In a first, the 2013 meeting also features three-hour long “deep dive” technical sessions by suborbital flight providers such as Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, XCOR Aerospace  and others, to give the research and education communities a chance to learn in depth about each flight system’s capabilities, development status and future plans for research and education missions.

The meeting will also include a NASA-led workshop on funding and flight opportunities for use of these next-generation vehicles in research, education and technology development.

NSRC-2013 boasts a strong roster of keynote speakers, including NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver, FAA Associate Administrator George Nield, NASA Associate Administrators Michael Gararik, NASA’s Space Station Program Manager Mike Suffredini, former Space Shuttle and ISS astronaut and Commercial Spaceflight Federation President Michael Lopez-Alegria, and spaceflight safety expert and former NASA Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale, of Special Aerospace Services.

Sponsored by Southwest Research Institute and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, NSRC-2013 will be held at the Omni Interlocken Hotel and Resort in Broomfield, Colo.

For more information about submitting abstracts or to register for NSRC-2013, visit http://nsrc.swri.org or contact Cindy Conrad, (720) 240-0126 or cindy@boulder.swri.edu.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever-higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s member companies, which include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, spaceports, suppliers, and service providers, are creating thousands of high-tech jobs nationwide, working to preserve American leadership in aerospace through technology innovation, and inspiring young people to pursue careers in science and engineering. For more information please visit www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director Alex Saltman at saltman@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.347.1096.

NASA 60-Day Commercial Crew Update

In December, NASA selected Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX for Commercial Crew Program phase I certification contracts. Under these, also known as “Certification Products Contracts (CPCs), the Commercial Crew partners will provide NASA with their proposed alternate standards, preliminary hazard analyses work, and plans for verification, validation, and certification. NASA experts then will assess these deliverables, relative to proven agency requirements and standards for human spaceflight, and provide feedback to the partners regarding the acceptability of their approaches toward ultimately achieving NASA certification to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. NASA’s responses will represent binding decisions that will carry forward into the next phase of certifiction, and therefore must be carefully analyzed and considered. Kickoff meetings have now been held with all three contractors and the work on NASA certifcation for ISS crew rotation services is underway. Through CPC, NASA receives and assesses commercial partners’ plans to meet NASA requirements.

To maintain the partners’ fast-paced momentum to develop crew transportation systems that will once again enable sending people to space from U.S. soil, NASA has committed to providing responses to every CPC deliverable within 90 days of receipt. NASA anticipates dozens of products will be delivered from each partner. Some will involve complex topics, including innovative ways of ensuring safety through design and testing that differ from NASA’s traditional experiences.

Given this large volume of expected work, its technical complexity, and the lean size of the NASA workforce supporting Commercial Crew, producing timely responses will be a tremendous challenge for the Commercial Crew Program. According to Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of Commercial Space Development, “This is our first opportunity to begin telling our partners how well their plans meet our requirements for the NASA missions. It is critical that we provide timely feedback in order to influence their designs without slowing their progress.”

To meet the challenge, the Commercial Crew Program has initiated an organizational structure to give special attention to CPC product evaluation. With the start of CPCs, a deputy specifically responsible for
products required for NASA certification has been added to the leadership of each partner integration team. Furthermore, the Commercial Crew Program has established a product flow management group which is responsible for coordinating the workload across all the partner teams, and in particular expediting the internal NASA reviews culminating with the formal Program-level decision boards.

NASA is open to alternative approaches to its requirements, and believes that there is more than one way to fly safely. CPC is the mechanism that now allows NASA to formally tell its partners which innovative methods will be acceptable when it comes time to fly NASA astronauts to the Space Station on the commercial systems. Developing clear and timely decisions for the commercial partners is being given the highest priority in the months to come.