NASA & World Space Exploration...News, Views, Photos & videos
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TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Not quite. The Bor were used as a Inspiration but the US also had a History of Lifting body designs. Including the Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar, The HL20, M2 Series
This was VERY welcome and good news. I had hoped the Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser would get an award. Now that is has we are REALLY back in business.
This is a Space Plane...no two ways about it. And yes, the desingers took their inspiration from several craft, including the old Soviet one.
But this is an all new design, and it has now won the award it needs to get into production.
I personally hope that this ultimately opens the door to the Crewed Dream Chaser also being used.
This is a Space Plane...no two ways about it. And yes, the desingers took their inspiration from several craft, including the old Soviet one.
But this is an all new design, and it has now won the award it needs to get into production.
Sierra Nevada said:
I personally hope that this ultimately opens the door to the Crewed Dream Chaser also being used.
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TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
I love Dream Chaser.Europe to invest in Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser cargo vehicle
by — January 22, 2016
Sierra Nevada VP Mark Sirangelo and Johann-Dietrich Woerner, then head of Germany's DLR, sign April 2015 MoU on Dream Chaser cooperation. Woerner now heads ESA, which is investing in Dream Chaser. Credit: SNC Corp.
PARIS — Sierra Nevada Corp.’s win of a NASA contract to ferry cargo to the International Space Station will trigger a $36 million investment by the 22-nation European Space Agency following a cooperation agreement to be signed in the coming weeks, ESA said.
Once the agreement is signed, ESA will begin work building the first flight model of the International Berthing and Docking Mechanism (IBDM), which Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser Cargo System will use to attach itself to the space station.
ESA said it would spend 33 million euros ($36 million) to complete the design of the IBDM and build a flight model for Dream Chaser’s first cargo run. Future IBDMs will be financed by Sierra Nevada, ESA said.
ESA and Sierra Nevada in early 2014 agreed to adapt the IBDM to Sierra Nevada’s winged Dream Chaser, which was originally designed to carry astronauts and more recently has been adapted for unmanned cargo missions.
The agency spent about 8 million euros on the early work, which slowed after Sierra Nevada failed to win a NASA contract to send commercial crews to the space station.
ESA said it had spent some 20 million euros in total in recent years working on IBDM and on preparatory work for Dream Chaser.
But Sierra Nevada’s surprise Jan. 14 win of the second round of NASA’s Cargo Resupply Services (CRS-2) business, which promises at least six missions to the space station for the Dream Chaser Cargo System through 2024, breathed new life into the agreement.
ESA Director-General Johann-Dietrich Woerner said the NASA contract revives not only the IBDM collaboration, but also studies of future launch of the Dream Chaser inside the fairing of Europe’s Ariane 5 rocket.
Louisville, Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems has designed the Dream Chaser in configurations to launch aboard United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 and the European Ariane 5 rockets. To fit under the Ariane 5 fairing, the Dream Chaser would fold its wings.
“There is a memorandum of understanding not only with ESA and SNC, but also between SNC and some of the other national space agencies [in Europe],” Woerner said during a Jan. 18 press briefing here. “These are looking at different technologies, coming from Europe, to be used in Dream Chaser, as well as using Dream Chaser for European purposes such as microgravity research.
“There is also the launching aspect,” Woerner said. “The idea is to have Dream Chaser also launched with an Ariane. We have checked and that is possible. There is already a plan to have folded wings. There was some discussions about whether this would be possible with astronauts, but that is not what we are discussing now, although even that would be possible.”
Before arriving at ESA in July 2015, Woerner was head of the German Aerospace Center, DLR. In April 2015 he signed a cooperation agreement with Sierra Nevada Corp.
In response to SpaceNews inquiries, DLR said Jan. 22 that NASA’s selection of Dream Chaser for cargo supply would not trigger any immediate investment by the German agency.
“DLR appreciates that Dream Chaser will now get its chance to prove itself in real-life service,” DLR said. “It is an innovative concept. However, no immediate actions on DLR’s side are foreseen. We will closely monitor the progress of the Dream Chaser project and we will evaluate if a more involved cooperation makes sense for both parties. No formal contract is foreseen, and thus no budget is allocated to this kind of work.”
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Losing bidders won’t protest NASA commercial cargo awards
by — January 26, 2016
Lockheed Martin proposed a reusable tug called Jupiter and a cargo module called Exoliner to transport cargo to and from the station in its CRS-2 proposal. Credit: Lockheed Martin
WASHINGTON — Two major aerospace companies that failed to win multibillion-dollar contracts from NASA earlier this month to transport cargo to and from the International Space Station said they have no plans to protest the agency’s decision with the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Representatives of Boeing and Lockheed Martin told SpaceNews that they have been debriefed by NASA about the agency’s selection of Orbital ATK, Sierra Nevada Corporation and SpaceX for Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) 2 contracts awarded Jan. 14, and are satisfied with the agency’s explanations.
Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Allison Rakes said Jan. 26 that the company received a “thorough” debriefing from NASA after learning it would not receive a CRS-2 contract. “We’ve chosen not to protest,” she said.
“Whereas we are disappointed that we were not selected for NASA’s CRS-2 contract, we remain fully committed in supporting NASA” and its work on the ISS, said Wanda Sigur, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s civil space line of business, in a statement.
Lockheed Martin proposed to use a reusable tug, called Jupiter, which would move cargo modules called Exoliners to and from the station. That technology, the company said when unveiling its plans last year, could have other applications, such as for satellite servicing.
“We knew our reusable approach was unique and addressed a broader set of mission goals, and although NASA chose to take another direction for ISS resupply, we are proud of this technology and believe it can support future exploration goals,” Sigur said.
Artist’s concept of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner capsule approaching the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Boeing
Boeing learned in November that NASA had rejected its CRS-2 proposal, which used a cargo version of the CST-100 Starliner vehicle the company is developing for NASA’s commercial crew efforts. Company spokeswoman Kelly Kaplan said Jan. 25 that the company had received a debrief from NASA and elected not to file a protest.
Kaplan said Boeing would wait to provide more details about its decision until after NASA released the CRS-2 source selection statement that describes the agency’s evaluation of the proposals and its rationale for picking the winning companies. At the Jan. 14 briefing to announce the contracts, NASA officials said source selection details would be published in the “near future,” but did not offer a specific schedule for releasing that information.
That outcome is different from what happened to NASA’s commercial crew program, which faced a GAO protest filed by Sierra Nevada after the agency awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX in September 2014. The GAO ruled against Sierra Nevada in January 2015.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin, along with Orbital, Sierra Nevada and SpaceX, were the five major companies that competed for CRS-2 contracts. NASA officials did not give a total value of the contracts, saying the value depended on the type and timing of the missions it will order from each company, but Orbital estimated its CRS-2 contract was worth $1.2–1.5 billion.
Boeing and Lockheed’s decisions not to protest also runs counter to trends in overall government contracting, where protests are increasingly common. According to a July 2015 report by the Congressional Research Service, the GAO closed 1,138 protests in fiscal year 2014 of contracts awarded by civilian agencies, compared to just 565 protests ten years earlier. The GAO sustained only 41 protests in 2014.
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TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
McCain, McCarthy to introduce bill to reinstate RD-180 ban
by — January 27, 2016
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, whose Mojave, California, district is an epicenter of commercial space activity, is joining with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) to introduce a bill that would reinstate an RD-180 engine ban repealed by the 2016 omnibus spending bill. Credit: Credit: U.S. House/Justin LoFranco
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will introduce a bill that repeals a provision in the 2016 omnibus spending bill allowing continued purchases of RD-180 engines for national security missions.
McCain was openly critical last month of the omnibus language, which overturned a ban included in the defense authorization bill.
McCain’s committee is on the use of Russian-built engines for national security launches. [AP]
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Airbus: Rocket joint venture with Safran awaits French tax ruling
by — January 26, 2016
Airbus Space Systems chief Francois Auque said his business posted exceptional results in new orders in 2015. The 900-satellite OneWeb order was the most spectacular. Credit: Arianespace
KOUROU, French Guiana – Europe’s Airbus Safran Launchers joint venture company, which is leading development of the next-generation Ariane 6 rocket, has fallen behind its development schedule as it awaits a ruling by French tax officials on an expected cash payment from Safran to Airbus, Airbus Space Systems chief Francois Auque said Jan. 26.
Auque conceded that French tax authorities were asked to provide their input “a little late in the process” and that it is this delay that has stalled full implementation of the joint venture.
He implied that the schedule delays were more the fault of the joint venture partners than of the French tax people.
Airbus and Safran, whose Snecma division makes rocket motors, agreed in 2014 that they should have equal shares of the joint venture, which will lead development of Ariane 6 and also take firmer control of both the current Ariane 5 rocket and the Arianespace commercial launch consortium.
The French space agency, CNES, has agreed to sell its 35 percent stake in Arianespace to Airbus Safran Launchers for 150 million euros, or about $162 million at current exchange rates. Once completed, the transaction will give Airbus Safran Launchers a 74 percent ownership share of Arianespace.
Airbus is bringing far more assets than Safran to the joint venture, including Airbus’s work on French strategic missiles. The two companies agreed that Safran would make a cash payment of 800 million euros to balance their ownership shares.
Safran officials have not provided details to shareholders on what return the company expects on its investment, and whether it was more strategic or financial concerns that drove the decision. The space-launch market is known as a low-margin business, but the Airbus-heritage military component of the joint venture may offer returns more in line with what Safran expects of its business divisions.
Auque’s comments Jan. 26 during a press briefing in Paris did not suggest that Safran was having second thoughts about writing a check for 800 million euros, but only that Airbus wanted to weigh its options following the French authorities’ analysis of the tax consequences for Airbus.
Auque said Airbus Safran Launchers has been stuck at the approximately 400-person employment level while the two companies await the tax ruling. Ultimately the joint venture should employ more than 4,000 people, he said.
“We had planned to move to Stage 2 of the joint venture’s activities as of Dec. 31, 2015,” Auque said. “We have obviously missed that date, and every day we want now is a day of delay.”
European Space Agency governments approved the Ariane 6 rocket, and an upgraded Vega small-satellite launcher, in December 2014. In doing so, they asked ESA to structure the contract to include a Program Implementation Review in mid-2016 to be sure their multibillion-euro commitment was on track to deliver on its promise.
Ariane 6 is scheduled to make an inaugural launch in 2020 and to allow Airbus Safran Launchers to drop the commercial price of Ariane launches by between 40 and 50 percent, measured on a per-kilogram basis, compared to today’s Ariane 5.
Auque declined to provide financial results for the Airbus space division, but said its book-to-bill ratio in 2015 was “far, far superior” to 2014, which parent company Airbus viewed as a successful year for the division.
Early indications are that 2016’s harvest of commercial satellite orders will surpass 2015, he said, and permit Airbus’s space division to hire more people in addition to the nearly 1,000 new employees – including 260 from other Airbus divisions – that were hired in 2015.
The most dramatic contract for Airbus’s satellite division in 2015 was its selection by OneWeb LLC of Britain’s Channel Islands to build 900 150-kilogram OneWeb satellites to provide global Internet access.
Airbus and OneWeb on Jan. 26 announced they had formed the company, OneWeb Satellites, which will build the OneWeb constellation – 648 satellites plus spares, for a total of about 900.
The two companies said Brian Holz, OneWeb’s chief technology offer, would be chief executive of OneWeb Satellites, in which Airbus and OneWeb will have equal ownership shares.
The first 10 satellites will be built at Airbus’s Toulouse, France, facility and launched aboard Russian Soyuz rockets – either the Europeanized version operated from Europe’s spaceport here, or the fully Russian version launched form Russian territory – in 2018.
The remaining 890 OneWeb spacecraft are to be built at a U.S. facility that industry officials say is likely to be located in Florida but has not yet been announced.
Airbus also announced Jan. 26 that it had contracted with ESA to build to additional Sentinel 2 optical Earth imaging satellites as part of the European Commission’s Copernicus program.
The contract, which was expected, is valued at 285 million euros. Airbus built the Sentinel 2A and 2B satellites and was all but certain to win the follow-on order for near-identical copies to assure that Sentinel 2 data continues to flow to users through the next decade.
The first of the series, Sentinel 2A, was launched in June 2015 and is now delivering 7 terabytes per day of data, Airbus said.
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TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
kwaigonegin
Colonel
anyone here ever been to kennedy space center? I'm thinking bout going there... tips tricks etc to maximize my visit or save $$ if you got some insider info LOL
They have great discount$ for active duty but nothing for vets
They have great discount$ for active duty but nothing for vets