Posted on 11/14/2017 7:47:42 PM PST by BenLurkin
For the past ten years, the Sierra Nevada Corporation and NASA have been developing and testing this next-generation space vehicle. When it is ready, this vehicle will not only provide a more cost-effective way of servicing the ISS, it will also help restore domestic launch capability to the United States.
On Saturday, November 11th, the Dream Chaser passed an important milestone by conducting a successful free flight test. This took place at Edwards Air Force Base in California, and verified the spaceplane’s ability to glide and land autonomously. This, in addition to verifying several key avionic and flight systems, is a strong indication that the spaceplane will be capable of conducting runs to and from Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) in the near future.
This test involved the spaceplane being lifted to an altitude of 3,780 meters (12,400 feet) and then let go to glide freely. It then deployed its landing gears and touched down on the Edwards Air Force Base runway before coming to a full stop. This runway, it should be noted, is very similar to the Kennedy Space Center Shuttle Landing Facility runway that the Dream Chaser will land on once it is operational.
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This flight test validated the performance of the Dream Chaser during what is arguably the most critical part of a mission – the approach and landing phase – which will be the final phase of future flights from the ISS. The ability to conduct automated landings is central to the spaceplane’s reusability,
I watched the video and in the closest shot it looked unstable in flight and the landing was rough.
For now it’s just intended to be a cargo carrier with no crew.
NASA is no longer a “Can-Do” engineering organization. It is now a “Can’t-DO” bureaucracy...
It’s principle mission is Muslim-outreach, junk climate science, LGBTQ and feminist promotion and obstruction of true space exploration.
It’s time is past. The DoD should leverage commercial developments for a presence in space and ignore NASA.
Great gifs!
No payload capacity in this thing at all. 1/2 Gallon of milk and a dozon eggs is all your getting in the trunk.
Front landing gear is a ski? Looks like it’s tearing up the runway a bit too. Can especially see it just before it comes to a stop.
“Oscar, I can’t hold her! She’s breaking up! She’s breaking up!”
Those lines still haunt me.
https://twitter.com/nsfwaterdrip/status/735751218492899328
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