Sierra Nevada Statement on Commercial Crew Awards
Dream Chaser shuttle. (Credit: NASA)
Sierra Nevada Corporation has issued the following statement concerning the Commercial Crew Program awards to Boeing and SpaceX:
“Sierra Nevada Corporation recognizes that NASA has made a selection of an alternative provider(s) in the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability Contract (CCtCap) competition. SNC is planning to have a debrief session with NASA soon to obtain the source selection statement and decision rationale. When this process is complete and after a thorough evaluation, SNC will elaborate further on its future options regarding the NASA Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract decision and the Dream Chaser program. Due to this pending activity SNC will have no further public statement at this time. We will be providing further information at a later date.
“While SNC is disappointed NASA did not select its Dream Chaser® Space System for the CCtCap contract, SNC commends NASA for initiating the effort and is privileged to have been part of returning human space flight to the United States through our awarded contracts in all other phases of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program over the past four years.”
22 responses to “Sierra Nevada Statement on Commercial Crew Awards”
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I’m sorry to read this. It looks like they were banking everything on landing a government contract. If private space develops like many hope it will, there will be many other contracts to fill in the near future. It would be a shame to see them pack it in so early.
well, the Sierra Nevada Corporation isn’t going to go away. they have partnerships in the ESA, JAXA, as well as many other US companies. for example, Sierra Nevada is building the Common Berthing Mechanism for Bigelow’s BEAM module that is going to be tested on the ISS. Sierra Nevada also has a number of unrelated military contracts.
as for Dream Chaser, it’s possible that the ESA and / or JAXA will pony up some funding for it, otherwise they may be able to continue on their own, as well. I know they were gearing up for another series of drop / glide tests. if they continue with those, then i’d say it’s reasonable to conclude that the “Dream” is still alive. of course, we will know more when Sierra Nevada gives its official statement.
The announcement sounded kind of somber. I was under the impression that SNC had stated their intention to build Dream Chaser regardless of how NASA chose.
if they have a customer, and I have said the ESA or JAXA, since Sierra Nevada already has partnerships with those space agencies,
http://spaceksc.blogspot.co…
http://www.forbes.com/sites…
and if either is willing to commit to supporting them, then i think they will continue work on the Dream chaser. both the ESA’s Ariane 5 and JAXA’s H-IIA have enough lift to put DC into LEO. both would love to have independent access to space.
DC does have a lot of development and testing work left to do. they recently decided to switch their engines from hybrid to all liquid, so it likely won’t be ready to fly by the end of 2017, but 2018 would probably be possible. all contingent on them getting full support and at least some funding from another space agency.
SNC is a privately held company so I do not know how much profits/retained earnings they have and how much they can contribute themselves. Sure would like to know how much skin they are willing to put into this.
interesting question. did some google searching, the most recent information i can find is that they were in the Forbes’ 5000 Fastest Growing Companies list, in 2010 and 2011, with revenues of $993.7 million and $1.2 billion, and growth of 189% and 148%, respectively. now, that’s revenue, not profit, and they didn’t make that list in prior or subsequent years. a fair chunk of that revenue and growth has to be due to the CCDev1 and CCDev2 awards, though.
Doug, Not sure how all that works I mean technically Dreamchaser is government property and could possibly be requested to be returned.
Plus, as far as I can tell there is an ITAR issue regarding sharing any Dreamchaser technologies with foreign countries.
how is Dream Chaser government property?
yes, there will be ITAR issues, but Sierra Nevada is well aware of those and has already been working with the ESA and JAXA on some portions of the Dream Chaser.
Doug, your right I’m wrong I mixed up info thinking it was initially a leftover NASA X-37A. Nevermind.
not a problem! these spaceplanes, they all look alike xD
Doug I remember the ESA and JAXA partnerships. I hope somebody wants their own vehicle enough to provide some funding. I wouldn’t count on ESA though.
Is there much possibility of either ESA or JAXA going further with it? I was under the assumption that most national space agencies had a “not invented here” mentality?
the Forbes article mentions there was some interest in launching from and landing Dream Chaser back in Japan.
i don’t know how strong the interest is, but that seems substantial.
i’m certain we will know more when Sierra Nevada makes their formal announcement about how they plan to go forward from here.
To be fair, NASA stated that having a “business case” for your spacecraft even if you were not selected was one of the “plus” criteria to BE selected. SNC may have exaggerated the market for the DreamChaser if it were not selected by NASA. In any case, they’re looking at a loss of a few billion dollars while Boeing was awarded $4.2 billion for a paper spacecraft. SNC took risks while Boeing didn’t, and now they’re being punished. I’d be somber, too. (Actually, I’d be pissed off, but I’d tone it down to “somber” on advice of counsel.)
Boeing probably has less of a business case outside of winning a NASA contract.
Who else would buy a ride on it when you can get a seat on Dragon for half the cost?
SNC’s vehicle at least could have carried customers who are unable to pass the physical for Dragon or Soyuz due to it’s low G reentry.
Oh, Boeing had no business case at all. They do, however, have a lot of Congressmen and Senators in their pockets. It life were fair, Boeing would have been the odd man out. Frankly, I’m sufficiently cynical that I’m surprised SpaceX was selected, even though they clearly had the best bid, across the board.
Well, that was a fairly civilized response. I hope this is not the last we’ll see of the DreamChaser.
Hmmm, sounds to me like SNC may be preparing a protest if they can justify it after reviewing the selection criteria.
Hopefully as the decision to give Boeing so much money for what is probably the least innovative vehicle to compete in commercial crew is just ludicrous.
New ITAR rules as of May 2014 cover domestic spaceflight vehicles from the USA.
http://bcrdc.com/aviation_w…
More like corporate communications.
“Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill”
Incompetent managers at NASA NEED Boeing to receive them via the revolving door. Surely SpaceX and Sierra Nevada would not hire them except perhaps for janitorial or cafeteria service.