I find it interesting that Boeing and LM seem to have priced themselves out of the CRS-2 competition.
I realized something else today that gives SNC a little more leeway in their price. It's a woman-owned business. Considering this is federal procurement that does give them a little extra leg up, as well as more leniency in price.
Quote from: rayleighscatter on 11/16/2015 09:25 pmI realized something else today that gives SNC a little more leeway in their price. It's a woman-owned business. Considering this is federal procurement that does give them a little extra leg up, as well as more leniency in price.Why should any consideration of the gender of the owner come into this?
The US Government has a weird definition of anti-discrimination, the laws are deliberately pro women and pro blacks. They have quotas for contracts.
Agree, but NASA has already dinged for being overly optimistic about transportation costs (cargo and crew). There is no money for DC development other than SNC's pockets (presumably amortized over the CRS-2 contract) or what could be paid under CRS-2--which must come under ISS "initial" or "base" integration--and which is added to the evaluation price. This is largely going to hinge on NASA's evaluation of DC's risk and how aggressive SNC is in pricing...
SNC has received about the same money under commercial crew ($312.5M) than Orbital ($288M) and SpaceX ($396M) did under COTS. If SNC gets selected for CRS2, the NASA funding of $396M for DC will have been money well spent.
An atmospheric test model of Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft, a cargo carrier for the International Space Station that will take off on top of an Atlas 5 rocket and land on a runway, is undergoing braking and steering checks in California ahead of a flight test later this year, the company said Monday.The full-scale Dream Chaser is pulled behind a tow vehicle for the ground tests now underway, reaching speeds fast enough to gauge the craft’s braking performance and guidance, navigation and control systems.Rolling on two main landing gear wheels and a nose skid, the Dream Chaser traveled down a runway Monday in Sierra Nevada’s latest tow test at Edwards Air Force Base, which is co-located with NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center.Once cut free from its tow vehicle, the Dream Chaser slowed to a stop, allowing engineers to gather data on the craft’s brakes, steering system, and guidance, navigation and control sensors that will line the spaceplane up for landing, according to Eric Cain, a Sierra Nevada engineer who described Monday’s test on the company’s Twitter account.More tests are planned in the coming months, including additional tow tests and a “captive carry” flight with the Dream Chaser suspended under a helicopter.
Sierra Nevada says the 2013 flight was successful until that point, and Dream Chaser’s autopilot landing system steered the craft toward the runway for a touchdown on the centerline.Engineers blamed the mishap on a landing gear borrowed from a U.S. Air Force F-5E jet. Future Dream Chaser cargo missions to the space station will fly with a different landing gear, and the refurbished spaceship now in California features a gear more advanced then the one at fault in 2013.“It’s much more close to the (configuration) of the orbital vehicle now, with flight software,” Sirangelo told Spaceflight Now earlier this year. “It’s fully autonomous, so it will use flight software that we’ll go to orbit with. All the control surfaces, and all the data gathering is all electronic.“The computer systems are now the orbital version of the computer systems that we will manage with, so it’s structurally similar, but virtually the whole inside of the vehicle has been updated and changed.”Meanwhile, technicians are building the space-rated version of the Dream Chaser that will fly into orbit on a cargo run to the space station as soon as 2019.
Not office SN video but nice anyway. Enjoy. Dream Chaser Visits the ISS animationHazegrayartPublished on Sep 12, 2017Dream Chaser Visits the ISS animation