Sierra Nevada Corporation Dream Chaser Testing Begins at NASA Dryden, Langley

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May 15, 2013

Trent J. Perrotto 
Headquarters, Washington                                
202-358-0321 
trent.j.perrotto@xxxxxxxx 

Krystal Scordo 
Sierra Nevada Corporation's Space Systems 
720-407-3192 
krystal.scordo@xxxxxxxxxx 

RELEASE: 13-143

SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATION DREAM CHASER TESTING BEGINS AT NASA DRYDEN, LANGLEY

EDWARDS, Calif. -- Sierra Nevada Corporation's (SNC) Space Systems 
Dream Chaser flight vehicle arrived at NASA's Dryden Flight Research 
Center in Edwards, Calif., Wednesday to begin tests of its flight and 
runway landing systems. 

The tests are part of pre-negotiated, paid-for-performance milestones 
with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP), which is facilitating 
U.S.-led companies' development of spacecraft and rockets that can 
launch from American soil. The overall goal of CCP is to achieve 
safe, reliable and cost-effective U.S. human access to and from the 
International Space Station and low-Earth orbit. 

Tests at Dryden will include tow, captive-carry and free-flight tests 
of the Dream Chaser. A truck will tow the craft down a runway to 
validate performance of the nose strut, brakes and tires. The 
captive-carry flights will further examine the loads it will 
encounter during flight as it is carried by an Erickson Skycrane 
helicopter. The free flight later this year will test Dream Chaser's 
aerodynamics through landing. 

Meanwhile, on the east coast, several NASA astronauts will be at the 
agency's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., this week to fly 
simulations of a Dream Chaser approach and landing to help evaluate 
the spacecraft's subsonic handling. The test will measure how well 
the spacecraft would handle in a number of different atmospheric 
conditions and assess its guidance and navigation performance. 

"Unique public-private partnerships like the one between NASA and 
Sierra Nevada Corporation are creating an industry capable of 
building the next generation of rockets and spacecraft that will 
carry U.S. astronauts to the scientific proving ground of low-Earth 
orbit," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for 
human exploration and operations in Washington. "NASA centers around 
the country paved the way for 50 years of American human spaceflight, 
and they're actively working with our partners to test innovative 
commercial space systems that will continue to ensure American 
leadership in exploration and discovery." 

The Dream Chaser Space System is based on Langley's Horizontal Lander 
HL-20 lifting body design concept. The design builds on years of 
analysis and wind tunnel testing by Langley engineers during the 
1980s and 1990s. Langley and SNC joined forces six years ago to 
update the HL-20 design in the Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle. In 
those years SNC has worked with to refine the spacecraft design. SNC 
will continue to test models in Langley wind tunnels. Langley 
researchers also helped develop a cockpit simulator at SNC's facility 
in Louisville, Colo., and the flight simulations being assessed at 
the center. 

NASA is partnered with SNC, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) 
and The Boeing Company to meet CCP milestones for integrated crew 
transportation systems under the Commercial Crew Integrated 
Capability (CCiCap) initiative. Advances made by these companies 
under their funded Space Act Agreements ultimately are intended to 
lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for 
government and commercial companies. 

While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop commercial 
spaceflight capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion 
spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and 
heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human 
exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for 
crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence 
beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration in the 
solar system. 

For more information about NASA's Commercial Crew Program, visit: 

http://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew 

For more information about Dream Chaser and Sierra Nevada Corp. Space 
Systems, visit: 

http://www.SNCspace.com 

	
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