Dream Chaser on the runway with landing gear deployed. Credit: NASA
Posted on 10/27/2013 8:10:07 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The engineering test article of the commercial Dream Chaser spaceship being developed by Sierra Nevada Corp (SNC) suffered some significant damage during its critical 1st ever approach-and-landing (ALT) drop test on Saturday, Oct. 26, in California due to an unspecified type of malfunction with the deployment of the left landing gear.
The Dream Chaser mini-shuttle suffered “an anomaly as it touched down on the Runway 22L at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.,” according to a post-test statement from NASA.
A report at NASA Spaceflight.com indicated that the Dream Chaser “flipped over on the runway” after touchdown.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
That's a new one to me!
Dream Chaser on the runway with landing gear deployed. Credit: NASA
Probably going to take a little more than Bondo and light buffing to fix that..........Just guessing.
NASA used to refer to their prototypes as test articles.
Usually it is a nonfunctional scale mockup designed to test functionality of various systems.
Sometimes destructively.
wow
sad news
Well, learn something and do it better next time!
Gorilla hair and a rip to maaco.
“Suffering anomalies Batman! This bureaucratese is sure hard to understand!”
Got to invest in 3M quick. Duct tape will fix it.
Exactly. Forty years later the intro still gives me chills....
So basically the Dream Chaser was doing an imitation of the M2-F2 lifting body crash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsMLQh_X9hM
Crash footage starts around the 8:40 mark.
Is it named “Obamacare?”
More footage of the M2-F2 crash.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jvGJhJINlc
Not uncommon in the aerospace industry. There were test articles for the shuttle and we built 3 test article external tanks (fuel tanks for the shuttle system) for different fact finding test.
Without that incident, there never would have been the 6 million dollar man. Much more expensive today. Hope SNC can get it back together.
An ANOMALY!!??? What has to happen for it to be called a "crash"??
I always wondered if “all systems nominal” necessarily meant good.
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