Quote Sierra Space hosted its first-ever official Dream Chaser training for astronauts, Jasmin Moghbeli (@NASA) and Satoshi Furukawa (@JAXA_en), of the upcoming #SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the @Space_Station.Press Release:[snip]The astronauts – Jasmin Moghbeli (United States) and Satoshi Furukawa (Japan) – are two members of the upcoming SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the International Space Station (ISS). During their planned six-month stay, Dream Chaser will make its maiden voyage to deliver cargo to the ISS as part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services-2 (CRS-2) contract.[snip]
Sierra Space hosted its first-ever official Dream Chaser training for astronauts, Jasmin Moghbeli (@NASA) and Satoshi Furukawa (@JAXA_en), of the upcoming #SpaceX Crew-7 mission to the @Space_Station.Press Release:
I know Dream Chaser has had its own fair share of issues causing delays, but I have to wonder if it would have been a better bet for crewed flight to ISS than Starliner is proving to be.
Quote from: Star One on 06/02/2023 08:30 amI know Dream Chaser has had its own fair share of issues causing delays, but I have to wonder if it would have been a better bet for crewed flight to ISS than Starliner is proving to be.Easy to say in retrospect. However, in 2014 when CCP was awarded, NASA thought Boeing was the conservative "sure thing" choice and SpaceX was the backup "diverse redundancy" choice. to add Dream Chaser, they likely would have removed Crew Dragon.
True redundancy meant that it was going to be SpaceX and either Boeing or Dreamchaser.
DreamChaser has struggled just as much as Starliner and the bar for unscrewed flight is much lower than for a manned capsule. There’s zero reason to think they’d be done by now any more than Boeing (although at least they would have been a lot cheaper).
All things considered, I think there's lots of reasons to think they'd be more done by now than Boeing is.
...All things considered, I think there's lots of reasons to think they'd be more done by now than Boeing is.
Quote from: JEF_300 on 06/02/2023 02:59 pmAll things considered, I think there's lots of reasons to think they'd be more done by now than Boeing is.No, Dreamchaser is still more than a year away for launching a cargo version. A crew version would be much further away.
Quote from: Jim on 06/02/2023 03:47 pmQuote from: JEF_300 on 06/02/2023 02:59 pmAll things considered, I think there's lots of reasons to think they'd be more done by now than Boeing is.No, Dreamchaser is still more than a year away for launching a cargo version. A crew version would be much further away.DC development slowed considerably after SNC lost commercial crew funding. Had they won then crew version should've done its maiden launched while ago. But it didn't win so here we are.
I've yet to see an explanation for how a crewed DC can abort from inside the fairing. The spacecraft is inside there for a reason.
Quote from: abaddon on 06/02/2023 02:43 pmDreamChaser has struggled just as much as Starliner and the bar for unscrewed flight is much lower than for a manned capsule. There’s zero reason to think they’d be done by now any more than Boeing (although at least they would have been a lot cheaper).A: Dreamchaser has developed about as fast as Starliner has, despite: - Boeing having more internal capital and resources than Sierra Nevada/Space - A spaceplane being a more difficult engineering challenge than a capsuleB: NASA awarded Boeing more money than they did Sierra NevadaC: NASA awarded significant funding to Boeing years before doing so with Sierra NevadaAll things considered, I think there's lots of reasons to think they'd be more done by now than Boeing is.
Quote from: darkenfast on 06/02/2023 07:35 pmI've yet to see an explanation for how a crewed DC can abort from inside the fairing. The spacecraft is inside there for a reason. Crewed version wouldn't be inside a fairing, the last time I asked.
Quote from: Lee Jay on 06/02/2023 11:26 pmQuote from: darkenfast on 06/02/2023 07:35 pmI've yet to see an explanation for how a crewed DC can abort from inside the fairing. The spacecraft is inside there for a reason. Crewed version wouldn't be inside a fairing, the last time I asked.Then why do they need to put the cargo version inside a fairing, and what would change that would make the crewed version work without a fairing?
Quote from: JEF_300 on 06/02/2023 02:59 pmQuote from: abaddon on 06/02/2023 02:43 pmDreamChaser has struggled just as much as Starliner and the bar for unscrewed flight is much lower than for a manned capsule. There’s zero reason to think they’d be done by now any more than Boeing (although at least they would have been a lot cheaper).A: Dreamchaser has developed about as fast as Starliner has, despite: - Boeing having more internal capital and resources than Sierra Nevada/Space - A spaceplane being a more difficult engineering challenge than a capsuleB: NASA awarded Boeing more money than they did Sierra NevadaC: NASA awarded significant funding to Boeing years before doing so with Sierra NevadaAll things considered, I think there's lots of reasons to think they'd be more done by now than Boeing is.I must be reading this wrong. In A you say Boeing has more money and a spaceplane is more difficult, B that NASA gave more money to Boeing, and C NASA gave more more money to Boeing years before SNC. But your conclusion is that SNC should be further along? Don't you mean Boeing should be further along?
The HL-20 story was no to end since in mid 2004 Jim Benson announced that the HL-20 development would be continued by his SpaceDev as Dream Chaser spacecraft. The SpaceDev was acquired by Sierra Nevada Corporation at the very end of 2008. On 1 February 2010, Sierra Nevada Corporation was awarded $20 million under NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) phase 1 program for the development of the Dream Chaser. On 3 August 2012, NASA announced the award of $212.5 million to Sierra Nevada to continue work on the Dream Chaser under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCAP) Program. Even if it share the same shape of HL-20, the Dream Chaser is a quite different vehicle inside using a lot of “state of the art technologies” (as carbon fiber for the pressure vessel and other structural elements).
Quote from: darkenfast on 06/03/2023 12:35 amQuote from: Lee Jay on 06/02/2023 11:26 pmQuote from: darkenfast on 06/02/2023 07:35 pmI've yet to see an explanation for how a crewed DC can abort from inside the fairing. The spacecraft is inside there for a reason. Crewed version wouldn't be inside a fairing, the last time I asked.Then why do they need to put the cargo version inside a fairing, and what would change that would make the crewed version work without a fairing?The cargo version has the aft unpressurized cargo bay and folding wings while the crew version has locked wings. There are a great many other differences, including propulsion.