[kosciusko51]

Aerodynamics drives the designs. You can either use a capsule and land using parachutes, or by a winged body. A lifting body is necessary, since larger wing cannot take the re-entry loads. If you have a better idea, the aerospace industry would love to hear it.

While the X-20 is the predecessor, there are a long line of improvements since then, culminating in NASA’s HL-20 lifting body, which the Dream Chaser is based on.

But the biggest differences is that this lifting body will be spaceworthy, unlike its predecessors. And it uses cutting-edge materials that did not exist until recently.

Finally, while NASA is paying for the ability to send cargo to the ISS, the development of the Dream Chaser is directed by SNC, not some middle manager at NASA.

[Dagnabitt]

Good post. Look forward to seeing this thing eventually launch and make it to the ISS. Would like also to see someone pay for a crewed version, even if NASA is saying no thanks for now.

[MasterGunner01]

NASA has lost its way. NASA is nothing more that a slow, cumbersome bureaucracy that stumbles and lurches along in fits and starts. I believe that real exploration and exploitation of space should be done in the private sector. They have the flexibility and quickness that NASA lacks. Unfortunately, NASA has the lion's share of funding.