SNC and ESA Sign MOU on Dream Chaser
SNC and ESA Sign MOU on Dream Chaser
“ESA and American company Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), have signed an understanding to identify areas of collaboration with European industry for developing hardware and mission concepts for the Dream Chaser orbital transportation system”
Sierra Nevada Corporation Announces International Expansion of the Dream Chaser Space System
“As the only lifting-body, low-g reentry spacecraft with the capability to land on commercial runways, anywhere in the world, Dream Chaser is uniquely adaptable to meet a variety of mission requirements, making it the only multi-mission space utility vehicle in the world.”
perhaps Dream Chaser could be utilized as a planetary science platform? as suggested here;
new Dream Chaser product idea,
http://yellowdragonblog.com…
I have a mental image of a Dreamchaser launching on an Ariane-5 or -6. One wonders if ESA may be able to beat a crewed Orion into space by going down this route!
Ben,
agree! Ariane -5 could do the job! I wonder how this might play out with the commercial crew down select process in future?
I was hoping for a down select with more then two…………
now back to my thoughts on what crush “depth” might be for Dragon or Dream Chaser deep down in Venus or Uranus atmospheres.
Or what would be crush depth for Soyuz or shengue deep in a planetary atmosphere
interesting that Jon Goff came up with a similar idea for Centuar,
http://selenianboondocks.co…
So ESA lets fly a Venus express follow on mission using both Dragon and Dream Chaser as planetary unmannned Probes