Please remember that DreamChaser is expected to use a 552 Atlas V. It should be able to do around 21 tonnes to LEO. Which is around what SpaceX claims Falcon 9 to do in expendable mode (22 tonnes). So it would either need a fully expendable Falcon 9 or a RTLS Falcon Heavy. An Atlas V 552 should cost quite a penny, probably in the 110~120M range. How much would SpaceX charge for a Falcon Heavy? Which would be the expected reliability and schedule margins? I wouldn't count Atlas V nor Vulcan out, yet.
Quote from: baldusi on 04/19/2017 09:39 pmPlease remember that DreamChaser is expected to use a 552 Atlas V. It should be able to do around 21 tonnes to LEO. Which is around what SpaceX claims Falcon 9 to do in expendable mode (22 tonnes). So it would either need a fully expendable Falcon 9 or a RTLS Falcon Heavy. An Atlas V 552 should cost quite a penny, probably in the 110~120M range. How much would SpaceX charge for a Falcon Heavy? Which would be the expected reliability and schedule margins? I wouldn't count Atlas V nor Vulcan out, yet.Gunter says DreamChaser is expected to launch on Atlas V 412 http://space.skyrocket.de/img_lau/atlas-5-412__dream-chaser__1.jpgIs the dual-engined Centaur required for redundancy? It certainly doesn't seem to be for payload capability.
At 14m30s, Vern Thorp from ULA said that they were making modifications, this year, to the White Room for other customers in the future. It's not clear what he meant by other customers. Presumably, he meant modifications for space tourist flights but he may have meant for other companies such as SNC:
from CCP Status reporthttp://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/nac-heocApproach & Landing Test 2 (ALT-2) is CCiCap Milestone 4B and CRS2Integration Milestone 5– Full scale Dream Chaser® engineering test article (ETA) unpowered approach & landingtest (ALT-2)- Ship to AFRC Q1 2017 for Range and Taxi Testing then Approach & Landing Test 2- Primary Objectives:o Collect subsonic aerodynamic data to validate wind tunnel and CFD aero resultso Validation of spacecraft low-speed aerodynamic flying qualities – stability and controlo Validate subsonic orbital vehicle flight software and GN&C functionality.Key Dream Chaser test vehicle Activities, Q3-Q4 2016– Successfully executed a large number of offline, on-vehicle and integrated tests inLouisville, CO facility to verify system design requirements and validate system function.– Landing Gear tests identified nose/main landing gear (NLG/MLG) deploy sequence issue– Remaining work planned in Colorado before Jan 2017 ship to AFRC/EAFB- Complete Landing Gear hydraulic system modifications and acceptance testing Avionics Checkout with Flight Fault Tolerant Flight Computers using Flight Software ver. 3.0 (flight load) Polarity Test, Multi-Actuator Test, pre-Ship Day-In-The-Life Test, Radar Altimeter installs, Flush Air Data System Checkout, Rollout Ground Resonance Test Prep ETA for ship before Christmas, Ship to AFRC/EAFB 1st week January 2017"Execute Free Flight Test (ALT2) March 2017, complete milestone NLT Aug2017 (current CCiCap 5-year period of performance).
Quote from: envy887 on 04/20/2017 12:56 amQuote from: baldusi on 04/19/2017 09:39 pmPlease remember that DreamChaser is expected to use a 552 Atlas V. It should be able to do around 21 tonnes to LEO. Which is around what SpaceX claims Falcon 9 to do in expendable mode (22 tonnes). So it would either need a fully expendable Falcon 9 or a RTLS Falcon Heavy. An Atlas V 552 should cost quite a penny, probably in the 110~120M range. How much would SpaceX charge for a Falcon Heavy? Which would be the expected reliability and schedule margins? I wouldn't count Atlas V nor Vulcan out, yet.Gunter says DreamChaser is expected to launch on Atlas V 412 http://space.skyrocket.de/img_lau/atlas-5-412__dream-chaser__1.jpgIs the dual-engined Centaur required for redundancy? It certainly doesn't seem to be for payload capability.552 is for Dream Chaser cargo version. 412 is for Dream Chaser crew version. The lack of crew, cargo container and payload fairing allow for the increase in solids to maximize payload. Dual engine is just for performance increase by minimizing gravity loses.
Quote from: NASAfrom CCP Status reporthttp://www.nasa.gov/directorates/heo/nac-heocApproach & Landing Test 2 (ALT-2) is CCiCap Milestone 4B and CRS2Integration Milestone 5– Full scale Dream Chaser® engineering test article (ETA) unpowered approach & landingtest (ALT-2)- Ship to AFRC Q1 2017 for Range and Taxi Testing then Approach & Landing Test 2- Primary Objectives:o Collect subsonic aerodynamic data to validate wind tunnel and CFD aero resultso Validation of spacecraft low-speed aerodynamic flying qualities – stability and controlo Validate subsonic orbital vehicle flight software and GN&C functionality.Key Dream Chaser test vehicle Activities, Q3-Q4 2016– Successfully executed a large number of offline, on-vehicle and integrated tests inLouisville, CO facility to verify system design requirements and validate system function.– Landing Gear tests identified nose/main landing gear (NLG/MLG) deploy sequence issue– Remaining work planned in Colorado before Jan 2017 ship to AFRC/EAFB- Complete Landing Gear hydraulic system modifications and acceptance testing Avionics Checkout with Flight Fault Tolerant Flight Computers using Flight Software ver. 3.0 (flight load) Polarity Test, Multi-Actuator Test, pre-Ship Day-In-The-Life Test, Radar Altimeter installs, Flush Air Data System Checkout, Rollout Ground Resonance Test Prep ETA for ship before Christmas, Ship to AFRC/EAFB 1st week January 2017"Execute Free Flight Test (ALT2) March 2017, complete milestone NLT Aug2017 (current CCiCap 5-year period of performance).You'll hardly find a bigger DC amazing people than myself, but (WADR to the Mods), when she was delivered to Dryden/Armstrong I predicted that there was no way SNC would make a March free flight, they would take the time to make sure everything was A-OK, were most likely looking at September-October, and my post was deleted. I don't mind that my post was moderated. I'm just glad SNC is not rushing and is taking the time to make sure she's ready to go. Getting near time to dig my "I heart DC" t-shirt out. https://twitter.com/sierranevcorp/status/867833578528284673Dream Chaser® spacecraft at dawn.
Wrt them announcing Atlas 552: Pricey. They could have a lot by switching over the F9.
Quote from: hans_ober on 07/19/2017 02:38 pmWrt them announcing Atlas 552: Pricey. They could have a lot by switching over the F9.If it needs an Atlas 552 then it probably couldn't launch on F9, would need to be FH.
Is a Dream Chaser Cargo even able to fit in the F9/FH fairing? It looks to be pretty long.In comparing values, Dream Chaser Cargo capacity is 5500kg, Dragon is 6000kg BUT is seemingly volume limited at 14m3 pressurized, and it's heaviest load was ~3100kg. What is the volumetric capacity of Dream Chaser cargo? Tried pretty hard to find this but came up pretty empty, there may be 16m3 in DC + extra in service module but the source was pretty patchy.
I am a bit surprised by the weight of the cargo DC... An Atlas V 552 won't be cheap. This so it requires three more SRBs compared to what the crew DC was baselined for, right?I also (for some reason) expected them to be ready before 2020. But they have been forced to a slower development process since losing the commercial crew down-select.
551 with the longest fairing is 18,813 kg according to RocketBuilder.com$167M for "Signature Service" to LEOAccording to this link here if you can open it (page 14) 552 is 20,520 kg to LEOhttps://web.archive.org/web/20120921011608/http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/media/ast_developments_concepts_2010.pdf*Credit to link from Twitter https://twitter.com/ethan829/status/888031620489515013Also see Atlas V Wikipedia entry