Posted on 05/05/2021 9:33:58 AM PDT by rktman
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla., May 4 (UPI) -- The Dream Chaser spaceplane, a cargo spacecraft built and operated by Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corp., is to begin launching and landing in Florida in 2022, NASA and the company announced Tuesday.
The uncrewed, robotic spaceplane will be launched aboard a United Launch Alliance rocket from Kennedy Space Center for flights to the International Space Station.
Once it docks and delivers cargo, Dream Chaser will return to the space center's former space shuttle landing strip.
The first Dream Chaser is being prepared for delivery to the space center next spring, Janet Kavandi, a former astronaut and an executive vice president of Sierra Nevada, said during a press conference Tuesday on the landing strip.
"When we first launch next year, 2022, at the end of that mission, we plan to come back and land here at this very runway," Kavandi said.
(Excerpt) Read more at upi.com ...
Are white, black, or hispanic devils allowed to land on the Chicom space station?
;-)
Very carefully.....by a United Launch Alliance rocket.
Dream Chaser is a copy of this Soviet craft from Spy Satellite photos ,LOL I wonder if SpaceX is working on one
Why do I have a feeling it has anti-satellite technology aboard.
Turn about is fair play. Just check out the roosky space shuttle.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)
And at least ours are on display.
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/baikonur-buran-soviet-space-shuttle/index.html
Looks like a lot of pigeon guano.
As it is unmanned, it’s sort of odd the craft appears to have conventional cockpit windows.
There are two versions: The uncrewed Cargo System, and the crewed Space System.
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Thanks for the clarification.
For whatever it’s worth, there were NASA/Northrop engineers for thr M2-F3, which were tied to the 1950’s development of the U.S. Space Shuttle we would eventually fly in April 1981.
1950’s US Space Shuttle design and development -
https://youtu.be/lAwde1LwZdI
That Commie POS is a knockoff of US lifting body programs.
Sorry, wrong link above.
Here is the PDF on 1950’s engineering development of the US Space Shuttle
Ever hear that phrase “form follows function.” The opening sequence of that Lee Majors TV show from the 1970 decade was actual footage of a piloted M2-F2 lifting-body vehicle crash.
I remember reading about the Lifting Body program in Popular Science when I was in high school. It provided essential flight research data to the Space Shuttle program.
“If it’s ‘uncrewed’, then why does it have windows?..”
Don’t know. Sent my reply to you from the article. [
I knew that. I love lifting bodies. The X-24B was my favorite with the HL-10 being a close second, and the X-24 third.
As you can see, there are a lot of different designs for lifting bodies. The similarity, especially around the nose between Dream Chaser and the MiG-105 is interesting, though.
Does it soar like a leaf on the wind? Would be more handy as an escape craft if it has high range select capability along the orbital path and diversion ability to airports far to the side. Believe can be configured for seven astronauts.
That is the crewed version. SNC was in competition with SpaceX and Boeing to send astronauts to the ISS. When SNC lost out on NASA funding for the manned version, they focused on their unmanned version, which does not have windows.
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