Dream Chaser

Manned Systems

Briefing Dream Chaser is a proposed American manned reusable spaceplane. The winged vehicle is designed for vertical take-off and horizontal landing (on con- ventional runways). Its main mission would be to provide NASA a commercial service for transporting crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station (ISS) in low earth orbit (LEO), although at the moment an unmanned autonomous ver- sion of the vehicle has been con- engine. On April 18, 2011, the On February 28, 2014, Sierra tracted by NASA to provide only program received an additional Nevada announced completion cargo transport. $80 million from NASA for con- of Milestone 4a flight test for Plans call for completing the tinued development work under Dream Chaser under CCiCap. first operational Dream Chaser— the CCDev2 phase. The test objectives included the Tenacity—and launching the first By February 2012, the assem- collection of all nominal glide flight demonstration mission bly and delivery of the primary slope and other critical aerody- (Demo-1) in March 2021. The structure of the first Dream namic data. The results of the first cargo mission to ISS is Chaser flight test vehicle had test validated the aerodynamic scheduled for the latter part of been completed. On February 7, performance of the vehicle. 2021. The designated launch site 2012, as part of the Commercial The CCiCap program was fol- for Dream Chaser is NASA’s Crew Integrated Capability lowed by the Commercial Crew Kennedy Space Center at Cape (CCiCap) initiative, NASA solic- Transportation Capability Canaveral, Florida. ited proposals to mature the de- (CCtCap) program to provide Based on the design of NASA sign and development of an inte- crew launch services to the In- Langley Research Center’s HL- grated crew transportation sys- ternational Space Station (ISS) 20 spaceplane of the 1980s, tem (CTS). The Dream Chaser and back to Earth. Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser was first publicly program received a $212.5 mil- submitted a bid proposal to announced on September 20, lion under the CCiCap. NASA offering its Dream Chaser 2004 as a candidate for NASA’s Sierra Nevada announced on spaceplane. On September 16, Vision for Space Exploration January 30, 2014 that it had suc- 2014, NASA opted to award (VSE) initiative. It was also of- cessfully completed the Incre- CCtCap contracts to Boeing (At- fered as a candidate for NASA’s mental Critical Design Review las V/CST-100) and SpaceX Commercial Orbital Transporta- (CDR) of the Dream Chaser ve- (Falcon 9/Dragon V2) potentially tion Services (COTS) competi- hicle, with the completion of worth $4.2 billion and $2.6 bil- tion in 2006, but was not select- Milestone 10a under its CCiCap lion respectively. Sierra Nevada ed. In February 2010, the Dream contract with NASA. Under the filed a protest of the CCtCap Chaser program did receive $20 CDR, NASA approved the criti- awards, but the protest was re- million from NASA under the cal design products, plans, and jected. first phase of the Commercial processes being used to develop On January 14, 2016, NASA Crew Development. Under the Dream Chaser, including the awarded Commercial Resupply CCDev1, the program succeeded spacecraft, Atlas launch vehicle, Services 2 (CRS-2) contracts to in developing its hybrid rocket and mission and ground systems. Orbital ATK (now Northrop

©Teal Group Corporation World Space Systems Briefing July 2020 Page 2 Dream Chaser

Grumman Innovation Systems), rockets, which are still under Recent Developments Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX. The development. In June 2020, the Thermal total value of the three contracts In March 2019, NASA con- Protection System (TPS) tiles for is $14 billion from 2019 through ducted its Integrated Review Dream Chaser Tenacity were 2024. The award (estimated at $2 Milestone (IR5) of Dream Chas- delivered to Sierra Nevada facili- billion to $2.5 billion) to Sierra er to confirm that development ties in Louisville, CO. The tiles, Nevada is for use of Dream of the vehicle was proceeding on which can withstand heat of Chaser for six cargo delivery schedule and approve it full pro- 3,000° Fahrenheit, will serve to missions to ISS and return of duction. IR5 tests, which were protect the spaceplane from the research samples and other cargo designed to validate the aerody- sun and upon re-entry into the from ISS back to Earth. namic properties, flight software Earth’s atmosphere. They are On July 19, 2017, Sierra Ne- and performance of the space- bonded to the body of the vehicle vada selected United Launch plane’s control system, took by a room temperature vulcanizing Alliance (ULA) to launch the place at Sierra Nevada’s facili- (RTV) silicone. first two Dream Chasers aboard ties Louisville, CO and NASA’s In April, Sierra Nevada re- Atlas V rockets, although subse- Kennedy Space Center. ceived delivery of the wings quently the missions were re- (Wing Deployment System) for assigned to ULA Vulcan/Centaur Tenacity from Lockheed Martin.

Executive Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) 444 Salomon Circle Sparks, NV 89434 USA tel: +1 (775) 331-0222 fax: +1 (775) 331-0370 (owner & operator)

Manufacturers Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. Space Systems 8000 Southpark Way #2 1722 Boxelder Street Littleton, CO 80120 Louisville, CO 80027 USA USA tel: +1 (303) 200-5162 tel: +1 (303) 530-1925 (primary subcontractor) (prime contractor)

Specifications Mass: 11,300 kg Length: 9 m Wing span: 7 m Volume: 16 m3 Crew: 7 Endurance: 210 days Re-entry: < 1 gs Payload to LEO: 5,500 kg*

July 2020 World Space Systems Briefing ©Teal Group Corporation Dream Chaser Page 3

Payload from LEO: 2,000 kg*

* With the attached Shooting Star cargo module.

Subsystems

Airframe Lockheed Martin Space Sys- tems Co. of Littleton, CO is the manufacturer of the all- composite structure, including the foldable wings, for Dream Chaser vehicle at NASA’s Mi- choud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, LA and facilities in Texas. The wing structure is built of carbon fiber and attached to the body of the spaceplane using titanium components. The vehicle has a Thermal Protection System (TPS) based on an abla- tive tiles developed by the NASA Ames Research Center at Mof- fett’s Field, CA. The TPS con- Shooting Star 4,500 kilograms of transport ca- sists of approximately 2,000 A 4.9-meter tall cargo module pacity. The module is expenda- tiles, which are reportedly called Shooting Star can be at- ble. It is designed to detach and stronger than those used on the tached to the rear of the space- disintegrate upon re-entry into Space Shuttles. plane to provide an additional Earth’s atmosphere.

Propulsion The spaceplane will be Vulcan would essentially be the (HTBP) nitrous oxide (NOS) launched vertically atop a Vul- Dream Chaser’s first stage. Once hybrid rocket engines, developed can/Centaur rocket, produced by in orbit, the spaceplane would be and built by Sierra Nevada Corp. Lockheed Martin Space Launch powered by a pair of hydroxyl- Systems of Denver, CO, so the terminated polybutadiene Guidance & Control Control is provided by reac- thrusters burn an ethanol-based tion control system thrusters. The fuel. Other Subsystems & Services Teledyne Brown Engineering, Spaceflight Center’s Missions Institute (SwRI) of Rockville, Inc. of Huntsville, AL has been Operations Laboratory in MD for testing Dream Chaser’s responsible for evaluating strate- Huntsville on developing mis- atmospheric flight control sys- gic and technical partnership op- sion concepts for the vehicle. tem. portunities for Dream Chaser. SAKOR Technologies, Inc. of The company has also collabo- Owosso, MI has supplied a test rated with NASA Marshall system to Southwest Research

©Teal Group Corporation World Space Systems Briefing July 2020

Contract Briefs Date Source Value Details

Lockheed Martin, Space Systems

03/25/2014 Sierra Nevada Contract to develop and manufacture the composite structure, including wings, of the Dream Chaser spaceplane.

Sierra Nevada

02/02/2010 NASA $20,000,000 Contract to help fund development (including manufacturing tooling and hybrid engine) of the Dream Chaser spaceplane under the Commercial Crew Development 1 (CCDev1) program.

04/18/2011 NASA $80,000,000 Contract for continued development work of the Dream Chaser spaceplane under the Commercial Crew Development 2 (CCDev2) program.

02/07/2012 NASA $212,500,000 Contract for continued development of the Dream Chaser spaceplane under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative to mature the design and development of an integrated crew transportation system (CTS).

01/14/2016 NASA $2,000,000,000+ Contract for six cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station (ISS) and return of research samples and other cargo via the Dream Chaser spaceplane.

Costs Estimated cost of developing use of a Vulcan/Centaur rocket should be about $250 million, Dream Chaser is more than $1 as its first stage, the per launch with the spaceplane portion es- billion. Given Dream Chaser’s mission price for the system timated at $50 million.

Teal Group Evaluation Dream Chaser is an attractive ant on expendable rockets and would have gone to Dream space vehicle many within the capsules that resembled more Chaser. space industry would like to see Apollo era technology. Ultimately, Dream Chaser’s succeed. The program has man- The loss of the CCtCap, how- big break came with the CRS-2 aged to survive during the past ever, should not have come as a contract in 2016 for six cargo two decades by winning just huge surprise to Sierra Nevada. supply missions to the ISS. enough NASA support and fund- Although Dream Chases did of- NASA’s decision to make room ing to see its way near to com- fer unique advantages, they were for a third supplier of ISS cargo pletion, despite losing out on not strong enough for NASA to services was a good move, in our several major competitions, in- justify rejecting SpaceX’s Falcon view. It gives Dream Chaser an cluding the COTS competition in 9/Dragon V2 proposal and Boe- excellent opportunity to prove 2006 and the one for the CCtCap ing’s Atlas V/CST-100. SpaceX itself as an unmanned vehicle in 2014. was an obvious choice, given its and keep alive the possibility that The CCtCap loss particularly stellar and prolific launch record, NASA may someday opt for us- stung because carrying astro- and NASA needed at least legacy ing it in its originally envisioned nauts to and from the ISS company with whom it an estab- manned role. What NASA will seemed like a perfect fit for lished partnership in the event be observing closely in Dream Dream Chaser, given the notion SpaceX (still not an establish- Chaser is the ability to control by many that NASA really want- ment player at that point) did not the vehicle and dock with the ed to go with a spaceplane in work out. Had there been room ISS. order to carry on the spaceplane for a third program under the NASA may actually come to tradition started by the Space CCtCap, we feel certain that slot depend more on Dream Chaser Shuttle rather than be solely reli- for cargo services than on the

SpaceX and Northrop Grumman fact that it was designed precise- plane, Tenacity. The company’s CRS-2 vehicles (Falcon ly to ensure a smooth ride has goal is to build a fleet of space- 9/Dragon and Antares/Cygnus), long been one of the major sell- planes and to eventually expand notably with regard to bringing ing points of Dream Chaser. Ac- into the space tourism business. back sensitive scientific experi- cording to Sierra Nevada, an ad- To convert Dream Chaser into a ments from the ISS that require vantage of what is referred to as cargo transport vehicle, Sierra as soft a landing as possible, for a “lifting-bodying spacecraft” is Nevada only had to change about which Dream Chaser, which is that the gravitational forces are 20% of the spaceplane’s interior able to land horizontally on a much lower during re-entry than space. Converting Dream Chaser runway, is better suited than its on a capsule. back to its original design for competitors which rely on cap- For now, Sierra Nevada has passenger transport would not be sules parachuting to Earth. The only one Dream Chaser space- so difficult. Launch Forecast (launch units) 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 Dream Chaser — 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 4 4

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