“From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” The Long story of a little spaceplane Giuseppe De Chiara 19.11. 2012 All the drawings are copyright of the author Foreword (1/2) It’s not an easy task to track down the history of the development of the actual Dream Chaser spaceplane, since it started with Russian efforts almost 50 years ago. In origin, Russians started (as Americans) a lot of studies regarding lifting bodies as spacecraft’s architecture. In particular they launched the ambitious project Spiral OS 50/50 as response to the Boeing X-20 Dyna Soar, essentially it was a TSTO with a large Mach 4 mothership (to be developed by Sukhoi OKB) and a small single seat spaceplane launched atop (to be developed by MiG OKB). For the Spiral OS spacecraft Russians studied a peculiar lifting body configuration dubbed “Lapot” (a Russian term that means “wooden shoe” since the shape resembled it). As often happened in the history of US-USSR aerospace confrontation the withdraw of X-20 program (in 1963) didn’t ceased the Russian effort on its counterpart, even as low priority program. During the 70’s MiG OKB realized one full scale test demonstrator called MiG105-11 and tested it several times launched by a Tupolev Tu-95. During the first part of 80’s the Lapot concretized into a real spacecraft with the advent of the Bor-4 subscale unmanned program as forerunner for the ongoing Buran OS. The Bor-4 performed 4 spaceflights between 1982 and 1984, in particular the first flights were spotted by Australian P-3 Orion aircrafts made available to Western analyzer a lot of photos regarding this brand new spacecraft. In particular the odd shape of Bor-4 attracted the NASA Langley designer and influenced them during the design development of a new transportation vehicle called PLS (Personnel Launch System) in mid 80’s that later become HL-20 (Horizontal Landing 20, no connection with the previous NASA program HL-10 of late 60’s). “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 2 Foreword (2/2) Originally proposed as Shuttle replacement to serve the upcoming Freedom Space Station, the HL-20 was looked as cheaper alternative since its use of EELV as launcher (Titan IV and later the NLS core stage). The development of HL-20 lasted from 1989 to 1993 and ended without any real hardware but a full scale mock-up realized jointly by NASA, North Carolina State University and North Carolina A&T University during 1990. Once that the HL-20 program was ceased it seems that such small spaceplane should be quickly forgotten except for a bunch of space enthusiast all over the world. 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). In April 2012 Sierra Nevada started the aero-dynamical trials with a full scale prototype of the Dream Chaser, the ETA (Engineering Test Article) which its function is quite similar to the Shuttle Enterprise back in mid 70’s. It took a very long road to the realize such small spaceplane but thanks to it the spaceplane family has not gone with the Shuttle retirement in July 2011, so long live to Dream Chaser a big small spaceplane. “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 3 Evolution of the HL-20 Series All the vehicles are at the same scale SPIRAL 50/50 MiG 105-11 Lockheed - Martin Definitive version BOR 4 LaRC Mock-up North American SNC Dream Chaser Rockwell Proposal 1960 1970 1980 1990 HL-42 Proposal Today “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 4 North American Rockwell HL-20 (1989) Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 5 LaRC & A.T. University full scale mock-up (1991) Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 6 Lockheed Martin definitive proposal (1993) Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 7 Dryden HL-42 proposal (1997) 42% Scaled up version of HL-20 Top view Front view Left view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 8 Lockheed Martin HL-20 Main Features Reentry Module: Crew: up to 10 Length: 8,93 m Diameter max: 7,16 m L/D (Hypersonic): 1,8 Habitable volume : 16,40 m 3 Mass: 10.884 kg Payload: 575 Kg (plus 1.270 Kg crew mass) Propellants: N204/MMH Electrical System : Batteries Escape System: Solid Rockets Top view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 9 Two launchers for HL-20 All the vehicles are at the same scale Titan IIIC (only for tests): NLS (operational): Length: 42.0 m Length: 52.0 m Diameter (max): 3.05 m Diameter (max): 8.70 m Total mass: 626.190 kg Total mass: 815.732 kg Payload: 13.100 kg Payload: 20.000 kg Titan IIIC NLS Core Stage “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 10 HL-20 cutaway Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 11 Spacecrafts Comparison All the vehicles are at the same scale “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 12 Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser ETA (1/2) Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 13 Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser ETA (2/2) Bottom view Rear view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 14 Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser (1/4) Re-entry configuration Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 15 Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser (2/4) Re-entry configuration Bottom view Rear view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 16 Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser (3/4) On orbit configuration Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 17 Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser (4/4) Landing configuration Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 18 Dream Chaser Main Features Reentry Module: Crew: up to 7 Length: 9,0 m Diameter max: 7,0 m L/D (Hypersonic): 1,8 Habitable volume : 16,0 m 3 Mass: 11.000 kg Payload: N/A Propellants: Hybrid (N2O/HTPB) Electrical System : Batteries Escape System: Hybrid Rockets Top view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 19 Dream Chaser cutaway Top view Front view Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 20 Dream Chaser ETA towed test All the vehicles are at the same scale Side view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 21 Dream Chaser ETA free flight test (VSS Eve) All the vehicles are at the same scale Front view Side view Top view “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 22 United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V CTS Main Features: Length: 57 m (Dream Chaser included) Max Diameter: 3.81 m Total Mass: 334,500 Kg Payload: 11,500 Kg Stages: 2 1°Stage: Atlas CCB (1 RD-180 with LOX/RP-1) 2°Stage: Centaur (2 RL-10A with LOX/LH2) Upper Stage: N/A Launch Site: Cape Canaveral SLC-41 “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 23 Dream Chaser Launch (Atlas V) LEGEND 1. Launch 2. First stage (CCB) jettison 3. Second stage (Centaur) jettison 4. Dream Chaser main engines ignition 5. Dream Chaser in orbit “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 24 Dream Chaser Reentry LEGEND 1. Dream Chaser prepares for re-entry 2. Dream Chaser perform the de-orbit burn 3. Dream Chaser gain the correct attitude for re-entry 4. Docking adapter jettison 5. Atmosphere re-entry “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 25 Dream Chaser Landing LEGEND 1. Atmosphere entry 2. Dream Chaser takes the landing corridor 3. Dream Chaser gain the attitude for landing 4. Dream Chaser enters into the landing cone 5. Dream Chaser touchdown and landing “From HL-20 to Dream Chaser” Giuseppe De Chiara © 2009-2012 26.