Sierra Nevada was something of a dark horse, mostly because its new Dream Chaser spacecraft has not subjected to as much testing as the other companies’ spacecrafts had been.
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NASA’s space station program manager, Kirk Shireman, said he’s been assured that the Dream Chaser could touch down on lots of runways – in lots of places.
Joining Sierra Nevada will be two companies who have already conducted 11 successful resupply missions to the ISS(Orbital ATK and Space Exploration Technologies or “SpaceX”). These flights, yet to be finalized, will run through 2024.
The $47 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Launch Systems Directorate will support the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program for national security space missions.
Others involved in the city’s push to bring Dream Chaser to Alabama said, however, that it is possible a resupply flight could land in Huntsville, depending on where the research samples it was carrying from space needed to go. A runway touchdown would be gentler than the ocean parachute drop used by SpaceX. In its latest proposal, SpaceX has offered to return its Dragon capsules to land as well, Shireman said.
CRS-2 missions to be launched aboard the company’s upgraded Antares rocket will originate from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) located at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. SpaceX experienced its own launch failure last summer.
The next round of Commercial Resupply Services, or CRS, contracts will cover the space station’s supply needs through the early 2020s.
NASA isn’t expected to announce the contracts’ dollar amounts on Thursday but rather to disclose which companies it has chosen to provide the next phase of cargo transport to low-earth orbit.
Whereas, SpaceX is awarded $33 million contract to develop a prototype of the Raptor engine for the upper stage of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles.
Some of the many reasons that Dream Chaser captured this award are the fact that, due to its folding wing design, its able to be launched on at least two different launch vehicles (using a five meter fairing). He would not comment on Boeing’s departure from the competition previous year, or other contenders.
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Dream Chaser can carry up to about 44,000 pounds of cargo inside the vehicle and another 4,400 pounds of unpressurized cargo in four flights per year, exceeding NASA’s delivery requirement by about 11,000 pounds per year.
