Dream Chaser approved by NASA

It tends to be good for consumers when competition in a sector hots up.  For a long time, in space, there were just the government-owned space agencies.  The cost of lifting 1 kilo into LEO (low earth orbit) was $22,000.   The government agencies all operated on a cost-plus basis, and, unsurprisingly, costs were high.  Then Elon Musk came along.  He was sure space could be done better and cheaper, especially if rockets could be re-used.  Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin also entered the race, though Spacex has been running much faster.  And Sierra NEvada Corporation started working on a re-usable space ship which could be launched on top of a re-usable booster from SpaceX or Blue Origin, thus cutting costs ten-fold.

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has been given the go ahead from NASA to begin full-scale production of its "Dream Chaser" commercial space cargo plane.

Scheduled to make its first mission in 2020, the company announced on December 18 that it had cleared the last milestone in its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract.

Now the company is able to move ahead with the full-scale production of the carrier which will be used to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS).

The Dream Chaser was originally conceptualized for NASA's commercial crew program but ultimately sidelined by NASA in favor of designs from Boeing and SpaceX.

A redesigned version of the original Dream Chaser, the cargo version includes foldable wings and is capable of carrying 5,500 kilograms (approximately 12125 lbs) of cargo to the International Space Station and return 1,850 kilograms (approximately 4078 lbs) to Earth in a runway landing.

SNC was one of three companies, alongside SpaceX and Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems), to receive a commercial cargo contract from NASA in 2016. The contract guarantees each corporation at least six missions to the ISS.

[Read more here]

Here's a video from Sierra Nevada Corporation about the Dream Chaser.




The cost of launching to and returning from space is going to keep on falling, a combination of competition and continuing technological advances.  And it will change the world.