Thanks! I highly doubt a commercial company would discuss anything to do with money, other than what they've been allocated by NASA. SpaceX give some loose prices for their launch services, but you can expect nothing else from these people.And that's totally understandable.
SNC added they are also determining the forward path for both the FTA and the third Dream Chaser known to be the Orbital Vehicle (OV) meaning there is no official word on whether the FTA will be the first Dream Chaser to fly a test flight in space, ahead of the OV which will be the Dream Chaser capable of carrying out commercial crew missions to the ISS.
I want to see this thing fly. I mean, I REALLY want to see this thing fly!
Quote from: Lee Jay on 12/10/2012 03:08 pmI want to see this thing fly. I mean, I REALLY want to see this thing fly!Many people would. It is hands down the most radical aerospace vehicle with a potential to fly in the next 5 years.
I've always thought it was a shame that Enterprise was never upgraded from a flight test article (FTA) to an orbital vehicle (OV).
Quote from: Todd Martin on 12/11/2012 12:59 am I've always thought it was a shame that Enterprise was never upgraded from a flight test article (FTA) to an orbital vehicle (OV).I always wanted to see that happen, and I thought it might following both Challenger then Columbia. Apparently, thought, every time they built a new orbiter, they found more and more ways to shave more weight. The FTA airframe was apparently too heavy to be worth conversion.On the cost effectiveness issue, I would think a high flight rate would make the difference. This vehicle should be much more reliable as a reusable vehicle than STS was and her turn around time could become substantially shorter. The TPS issue is substantially less as top-mount on the LV. The highest number of reuses for a capsule that I can remember reading is 10, but I could see a DC being re-certified through 200 flights. Couple that with RTLS and no well-deck ship necessary for recovery, amortized costs over a high flight rate just seems to favor this vehicle.
On the cost effectiveness issue, I would think a high flight rate would make the difference. This vehicle should be much more reliable as a reusable vehicle than STS was and her turn around time could become substantially shorter. The TPS issue is substantially less as top-mount on the LV. The highest number of reuses for a capsule that I can remember reading is 10, but I could see a DC being re-certified through 200 flights. Couple that with RTLS and no well-deck ship necessary for recovery, amortized costs over a high flight rate just seems to favor this vehicle.
I always wanted to see that happen, and I thought it might following both Challenger then Columbia. Apparently, thought, every time they built a new orbiter, they found more and more ways to shave more weight. The FTA airframe was apparently too heavy to be worth conversion.On the cost effectiveness issue, I would think a high flight rate would make the difference. This vehicle should be much more reliable as a reusable vehicle than STS was and her turn around time could become substantially shorter. The TPS issue is substantially less as top-mount on the LV. The highest number of reuses for a capsule that I can remember reading is 10, but I could see a DC being re-certified through 200 flights. Couple that with RTLS and no well-deck ship necessary for recovery, amortized costs over a high flight rate just seems to favor this vehicle.
Quote from: TomH on 12/11/2012 03:20 amI always wanted to see that happen, and I thought it might following both Challenger then Columbia. Apparently, thought, every time they built a new orbiter, they found more and more ways to shave more weight. The FTA airframe was apparently too heavy to be worth conversion.On the cost effectiveness issue, I would think a high flight rate would make the difference. This vehicle should be much more reliable as a reusable vehicle than STS was and her turn around time could become substantially shorter. The TPS issue is substantially less as top-mount on the LV. The highest number of reuses for a capsule that I can remember reading is 10, but I could see a DC being re-certified through 200 flights. Couple that with RTLS and no well-deck ship necessary for recovery, amortized costs over a high flight rate just seems to favor this vehicle.IIRC, the DreamChaser will still have a turnaround time of 2 months between flights. That is mostly because of the TPS needed a lot of service time. This is IMHO the biggest problem with the concept of the DC, the shape requires a comples TPS like the shuttle's was and that means a lot of inspection work. That will raise the price of operating it.
What do you mean by "most radical"?