Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft passes major milestone for NASA CCiCap agreement

By: InnovatioNews Wednesday December 3, 2014 Tags: CCiCap, Dream Chaser, Louisville, Mark Sirangelo, NASA, SNC Space Systems

 

SPARKS, Nev. - Sierra Nevada Corp. announced the successful completion of a major milestone to its Reaction Control System (RCS) propulsion risk reduction for the Dream Chaser Space System known as Milestone 15a.

SNC said the achievement further matures the design toward Critical Design Review and positions the company - whose Space Systems Division is in Louisville - one step closer to completing the milestones in NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement.

So far, SNC said it has received 96 percent of the total award value of the CCiCap agreement with 12 of 13 milestones reached.

The RCS, designed and tested by SNC's wholly-owned subsidiary - Orbital Technologies Corp. - provides precise on-orbit control of the Dream Chaser spacecraft for critical maneuvers, including docking of the Dream Chaser to destinations in low-Earth orbit and supports the spacecraft's ability to safely return from orbit and land on any designated runway.

"Safety is paramount in the design of the Dream Chaser Space System," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate VP of SNC Space Systems. "It is driven by reliability, rigorous quality assurance, consistent performance, extensive testing and robust analysis.

"In passing this milestone, we are able to validate our performance and safety while decreasing the risk of this critical propulsion system."