Dream Chaser Tenacity

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https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Dream_Chaser_Tenacity_999.html

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the global aerospace and national security leader owned by Eren and Fatih Ozmen, marked National Space Day by announcing the name of its first orbital vehicle set to launch under contract with NASA: Dream Chaser Tenacity.

"Tenacity is in SNC's DNA," said SNC Chairwoman and President Eren Ozmen.

"Every critical moment in SNC's history of innovation has called for tenacity, in overcoming challenges in order to support and protect explorers and heroes. As the nation faces this current challenge, we want this vehicle to be a beacon of hope that American ingenuity - and tenacity - will bring brighter days ahead."

SNC's Dream Chaser spacecraft, known as "America's Spaceplane," is the world's only non-capsule, commercial spacecraft and is capable of a runway landing. Under a NASA contract, it will perform cargo delivery and disposal services to and from the International Space Station on at least six NASA missions.

"Dream Chaser is a story of grit and tenacity on the part of SNC's team," said John Curry, SNC's Program Director for Dream Chaser.

"NASA's vision and ours for a next gen space shuttle with a gentle runway landing has weathered tough economic and budget resources and competing visions. The team and engineers working on Dream Chaser have believed in its superior design, knowing tenacity would lead to Dream Chaser flying in space and returning humans and science back to Earth safely."

NASA this week selected the Dynetics team, of which SNC is an integral part, to support its Artemis mission to the moon. SNC is leading development of the crew module for NASA's Human Landing System (HLS) program, which will ferry astronauts and supplies to and from the moon's surface.

The program is designed to provide new science and material resources and leverage the moon as a proving ground for future Mars missions. NASA's goal is to land astronauts on the moon by 2024 and establish sustainable missions by 2028.

Owned and operated by SNC, the Dream Chaser spaceplane is a reusable, multi-mission space utility vehicle. It is capable of transportation services to and from low-Earth orbit and is the only commercial, lifting-body vehicle capable of a runway landing. The Dream Chaser Cargo System was selected by

NASA to provide cargo delivery and disposal services to the International Space Station under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 (CRS-2) contract. All Dream Chaser CRS-2 cargo missions are planned to land at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility.

The Shooting Star cargo module is a 15-foot attachment to Dream Chaser that provide extra storage for payloads, flexible mission options and facilitates cargo disposal upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

 

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Dream Chaser: Hypersonic spaceplane will feature a building-sized inflatable space habitat

Dream Chaser, the spaceplane that will carry passengers to the "space business park", features its own inflatable space habitat.

interestingengineering.com

Dream Chaser: Hypersonic spaceplane will feature a building-sized inflatable space habitat​

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, has been hard at work alongside Colorado-based startup Sierra Space on the Orbital Reef project.

The two companies behind the project recently blasted a module prototype for the station to pieces as part of an ongoing test campaign.

Orbital Reef, one of the planned, private successors to the International Space Station (ISS), will contain a space hotel, a restaurant, and research facilities for companies and scientists.

Once it is finally in orbit, around the year 2027, people will travel to and from the so-called "space business park" using a supersonic spaceplane called Dream Chaser.

Meet Dream Chaser​

Sierra Space is developing Dream Chaser as part of its plans to become the largest real estate developer in space alongside Blue Origin. In an interview with Robb Report, Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice claimed we are on the verge of "the Orbital Age", which could be compared to the Industrial Revolution or the advent of the Information Age.

“We first have to get good at building commercial economies in low earth orbit,” Vice said. “Then we’ll move to the lunar surface, 250,000 miles away, before we can figure out how to live on a planet that’s 35 million miles away.”

Part of Sierra Space's contribution to that cause comes in the form of Dream Chaser, which is expected to carry out its first manned mission at some point in 2026. The supersonic spaceplane will be reusable roughly 15 times and it will be able to carry roughly 12,000 lbs (5,440 kg) of cargo or 12 passengers.

Aside from eventually carrying passengers to Orbital Reef, Dream Chaser will also fly cargo and crew to the ISS as part of a $3 billion contract with NASA. The contract is part of an initiative by NASA to reduce its reliance on SpaceX as the only US firm currently capable of transporting astronauts to the ISS.

Dream Chaser will feature a massive inflatable space habitat​

Dream Chaser will be four times shorter in length than NASA's space shuttle, measuring 30 feet in total. However, it includes a feature called LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) that allows it to deploy a large space habitat once in space. The inflatable habitat expands to a size of 27 feet in diameter, which is the equivalent of a three-story building. Its soft material is able to deflect small meteors and other space debris.

The spaceplane's relatively small stature also allows one key advantage. It can land horizontally on any runway that is capable of accommodating a Boeing 747 or Airbus A380.

Though the long-term goal is for Dream Chaser to land on commercial runways at international airports, Sierra Space is also building a network of spaceports for Dream Chaser — including New Mexico’s Spaceport America and facilities in Cornwall, England, and Oita, Japan. Once operational, Dream Chaser will be able to reach Orbital Reef's low-orbit location within about three days of travel time.