SNC’s Dream Chaser Space Plane’s Shooting Star Arrives in Colorado for Integration
SPARKS, Nev., May 14, 2020 (SNC PR) – Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the global aerospace and national security leader owned by Eren and Fatih Ozmen, received its Shooting Star transport vehicle at the company’s Colorado production facility, marking the beginning of a key integration phase. This phase includes installation of the SNC-built Passive Common Berthing Mechanism that will allow SNC’s Dream Chaser Tenacity spaceplane, the first orbital vehicle in the company’s Dream Chaser fleet, to berth to the International Space Station.
Shooting Star is a 16-foot tall attachment to Dream Chaser that has capacity for more than 10,000 pounds of additional payloads to the International Space Station. It represents the first composite pressure vessel ever test-verified for visiting the International Space Station.
“This is a landmark milestone, not only for SNC, but for all of space exploration,” said SNC owner and CEO, Fatih Ozmen. “This state-of-the-art, mission-ready structure is a testament to SNC’s ability to deliver more capabilities to our customer without compromising on design.”
Built primarily from advanced composite materials, Shooting Star has a high strength-to-weight ratio, allowing it to achieve a high payload capacity to the space station. The structure was manufactured by subcontractor Applied Composites to SNC’s design requirements and recently shipped from its San Diego, California facility, to Louisville, Colorado, where it will be integrated by SNC.
“I am very proud of both Applied Composites and my team,” said former NASA space shuttle commander and retired USAF pilot Steve Lindsey, now senior vice president of strategy for SNC’s Space Systems business area. “Not only did they complete crucial testing for Shooting Star on an accelerated timeline ahead of Shooting Star’s arrival in Louisville, but they innovated an entirely new approach to maintain the safety of both teams throughout the COVID-19 crisis.”
Shooting Star will now undergo integration with its subsystems before being delivered to NASA’s Plum Brook Station in Cleveland, Ohio for testing to ensure it can withstand both launch and space environments.
Dream Chaser is under contract with NASA for at least six cargo resupply and return service missions to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract. The Dream Chaser and attached Shooting Star transport vehicle can carry up to 12,000 pounds of supplies and other cargo, and returns delicate science to Earth with a gentle runway landing. Shooting Star also allows disposal services for the space station, and for these disposal missions, separates from Dream Chaser and disintegrates upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.
About Dream Chaser Spacecraft
Owned and operated by SNC, the Dream Chaser spacecraft is a reusable, multi-mission space utility vehicle. It is capable of transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit and is the only commercial, lifting-body vehicle capable of a runway landing. The Dream Chaser Cargo System was selected by NASA to provide cargo delivery and disposal services to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract. All Dream Chaser CRS-2 cargo missions are planned to land at Kennedy Space Center’s Shuttle Landing Facility.
About Sierra Nevada Corporation
Owned by Chairwoman and President Eren Ozmen and CEO Fatih Ozmen, SNC is a trusted leader in solving the world’s toughest challenges through best-of-breed, open architecture engineering in Space Systems, Commercial Solutions, and National Security and Defense. SNC is recognized among the three most innovative U.S. companies in space, as a Tier One Superior Supplier for the U.S. Air Force, and as one of America’s fastest growing companies. SNC’s 55-year legacy of state-of-the art civil, military and commercial solutions includes delivering more than 4,000 space systems, subsystems and components to customers worldwide, and participation in more than 450 missions to space, including Mars.
17 responses to “SNC’s Dream Chaser Space Plane’s Shooting Star Arrives in Colorado for Integration”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
go go go
Its a bummer that it is for cargo, but better cargo, than nothing.
I suspect that had they won a CC like they were supposed to (they scored far better than Boeing), then they would probably be up there now.
Someday…
You do remember that they broke their only test article while they were putting out multiple press releases about their confirmed contract to launch on an Atlas 5? Rather spectacularly as it turns out. Nice of them to bounce back but I think they need a few more drop tests before they’re ready to fly.
The “breakage” was fairly minor as said test article was repaired and flew again.
The NASA of some years ago likely would have insisted on “a few more drop tests,” as part of its flagrantly dissimilar treatment of NewSpace companies anent its legacy contractors.
Said test article, if it flew again, didn’t seem to make any news. Regardless, I would hope that SNC would insist on more testing. Also, perhaps I’m in error but when Elon Musk actually tests a design, you’re all for it but when Boeing relies on computer modeling instead of actually testing, that’s not good. Are you now asserting that a heavy reliance on computer modeling is a failing for an “Old Space” manufacturer but OK for a “New Space” one? Damn, I was just starting to come around to the idea that Boeing should do more actual testing but if computer modeling is good enough for SNC, it should be good enough for Boeing.
Relying SOLELY on computer modeling is what Boeing did.
That is why they had a major cluster with their first test.
Making heavy use of it and lowering the number of test drops is what SNC wanted to do and what eagle is implying.
So we can expect more test drops? Perhaps this time from a C-17 at high altitude instead of from a helicopter? Do you know for sure that there were no Boeing test drops?
There were test drops of Starliner, both onto land, as nominally intended, and into water which might prove necessary under unusual circumstances. I don’t know how many of each were conducted.
I believe multiple water drop tests were conducted, each at a different angle of initial incidence, to test the water stability of the craft.
But the real test of these various vehicles will be when they are fired into space, rendezvous with ISS, then detach and come back. That can’t be realistically tested except by doing an actual mission.
Starliner fell down in at least two major respects on its first such try. Dream Chaser might also have problems as bad or worse – who knows?
But Dream Chaser, in its current form, is never going to carry people and an early failure can be redressed with an eventual successful test.
If Dream Chaser is ever built in a version capable of carrying crew, the vast majority of risk will already have been paid down.
Stick the search predicate “Dream Chaser drop test” into your favorite search engine. Plenty of coverage of both drop tests can be easily found.
The original drop test on Oct. 26, 2013 was a complete success except for the failure of the left landing gear to deploy. The vehicle glided down on the correct profile, found the center of the runway and did what should have been a smooth touchdown. But the non-deployment of one landing wheel sent it into the weeds and scratched it up a bit.
Another drop test was conducted on Nov. 11, 2017 with different landing gear which went perfectly.
So the vehicle has had two successes in exercising its avionics, at least to the extent it is possible to do so on a terminal glide test.
If avionics and software had proven wonky on either or both tests, more testing would certainly have been indicated. As things stand, it’s hard to see what else might have been learned by more testing of that sort.
It isn’t even really necessary to establish limits for the vehicle’s behavior in sub-optimal weather as Dream Chaser can remain on orbit for awhile after departing ISS to either allow bad weather to clear from its primary landing site or to make a landing at some alternate site with acceptable weather.
Dream Chaser could still come to grief in some other part of its flight regime, but the test for that will be its initial launch, ISS visit and return a couple years hence. On that first launch, I expect Dream Chaser to be filled exclusively with mundane consumables for ISS. On Dream Chaser’s first return, I expect the downmass aboard to be entirely trash. Once proven through a complete flight regime, Dream Chaser can start being entrusted with non-commodity upmass and non-trash downmass.
What risk there is here is entirely on SNC and Dream Chaser, not NASA.
are you sure if flew again?
Yes.
Nope.
Took a while to find this:
…Between the 2013 and 2017 tests, a number of systems have changed on the Dream Chaser ETA including the main gear that is more advanced than that flown on the first test and is closer to the flight hardware…
Spaceflight 101
11-13-17
That was from a test article for landing in which the gear buckled. However, the gear was not the intended final item.
Breaking the gear in a landing test constitutes total failure. I’d be willing to bet they were testing other things as well since SNC labeled it a “success” regardless of the amount of metal they bent on the runway. I recall reading about just one drop test from a helicopter for the resurrected cargo model. I would think that if they had done more Doug would have been on top of it and SNC would have publicized the crap out of it. It’s for this reason that I’m skeptical of the craft’s ability to fly its mission profile. I guess if they satisfy NASA…
WOW.
Just thinking about this.
That shooting star could make a CHEAP tug, along with a testing site for berthing/docking.
It already would have power (solar, batteries, etc).
On the shooting star’s CBM, add piping for refueling Nitrous Oxide/Propane, along with tankage.
Add to that the rest of DC’s needed items: vortex engines, nav boards, some HVAC controls, small antennas to comm with earth and other craft.
SNC could very well build the first useful tug for space.
Well, not the first. That will most likely be Momentus’s Vigoride. But a tug based on ShootingStar would be enormously larger than Vigoride.