Thanks. Dream Chaser was always my favorite CCDev project.
I was sad that they lost to SpaceX. Boeing was always gonna be selected as the 'safe contractor' ( ) and there was only room for one 'outsider'. I understand why it went to SpaceX, and in the end it was the right decision. Still, a Crew Dragon / Dream Chaser combo would have looked fantastic... they'd probably both be flying too. Shame it was never going to happen.

I'm glad they kept fighting and found a way to make it a reality anyway. Hopefully they get a crewed version up there one day. I think it would be a perfect opportunity for ESA to get their own astronaut access to orbit. They could get European contractors involved. In fact, this was supposed to happen for the cargo version, according to old articles...
There is certainly a lot of potential there.

One small detail though: it needs a Vulcan to fly and a Vulcan needs BE-4 engines to launch...

Francoflier wrote:

Thanks. Dream Chaser was always my favorite CCDev project.
I was sad that they lost to SpaceX. Boeing was always gonna be selected as the 'safe contractor' ( ) and there was only room for one 'outsider'. I understand why it went to SpaceX, and in the end it was the right decision. Still, a Crew Dragon / Dream Chaser combo would have looked fantastic... they'd probably both be flying too. Shame it was never going to happen.

I'm glad they kept fighting and found a way to make it a reality anyway. Hopefully they get a crewed version up there one day. I think it would be a perfect opportunity for ESA to get their own astronaut access to orbit. They could get European contractors involved. In fact, this was supposed to happen for the cargo version, according to old articles...
There is certainly a lot of potential there.

One small detail though: it needs a Vulcan to fly and a Vulcan needs BE-4 engines to launch...

Agreed on Dreamchaser. BE-4 is getting close, they are building and testing production engines, according to Tory Bruno

Very interesting program. I like that it looks like a proper space ship. Some shuttle nostalgia on my part for sure.

Sierra has reached the point of applying thermal protection system tiles to the DreamChaser flight article, Tenacity.

Still significant ground testing left to go, probably 9 to 12 months until launch. NASA astronauts recently visited to receive some training on cargo handling.

https://twitter.com/SierraSpaceCo/statu ... 06/photo/1

Dream chaser seems to be built with significant engine thrust and has room for additional engines. Currently they have one engine per side but renderings have been shown with a 3 engines per side. Considering the Dream Chaser spaceplane gets launched all the way to orbit it should only need manuevering engines like the Boeing and SpaceX capsules.

This points to Dream Chaser potentially being designed for a more reusable launch system in the future. Potentially similar to the original space shuttle or a fully reusable system.

The first stage shuttle option.
For instance two Rocket Lab Electron lower stage rockets acting as boosters with a central disposable fuel tank to provide fuel to the Dream Chasers inbuilt engines. The Dream Chaser is 25% the length and size of the Shuttle. 0.25 x 0.25 x 0.25 equals 0.015625. A 25% scale Space Shuttle then requires 1.6% of the thrust. An electron lower stage has exactly 1.6% of the thrust of a space shuttle booster. A very big coincidence.

Dream Chaser would then need an external fuel tank with around 20,000kg of fuel. It would only need around 200kn of total engine thrust to have a similar thrust to weight ratio of the space shuttle. The triple pack shown in the rendering has the required thrust. Another very big coincidence.

The second Falcon 9 option.
Dream Chaser has significant propellant capacity. I estimate between 3,000kg and 4,000kg of propellant and this would provide between 2000ms and 3000ms of Delta V. Hypothetical speaking Dream Chaser could be placed directly ontop of the first stage of a Falcon 9 booster. Dream Chaser is approximately 7-8% of the weight of the Falcon 9 upper stage plus the payload. The booster would be able to launch it up much higher and faster to around 14,000km/h instead of 8,000 km/h. This means Dream Chaser needs significantly less Delta V than the Falcon 9 upper stage to reach orbit. The problem here is the Falcon 9 lower stage booster would be re-entering the atmosphere much faster and hotter. It would require a longer re-entry burn. The numbers are very close. The big trade off is that Dream Chaser would be able to lift less than 10% of the payload to LEO of a normal Falcon 9. But it is 100% reusable.

The third air launched option.
Stratolaunch can lift 250,000kg. Place another larger winged rocket plane behind Dream Chaser to act as a booster. The larger rocket plane takes it up between 14,000km/h. This rocket plane won't need heat tiles at this speed. You now have a 3 stage runway launch and runway landing system.

Sierra has announced they have powered up DreamChaser for the first time. Another step in the sequence to launch.

https://www.sierraspace.com/newsroom/pr ... s-to-life/

zanl188 wrote:

Some new video from Sierra. Includes cargo module.

https://youtu.be/TesrNdfbMJ8?si=rEHcTqZ7fj8V9EDr

Awesome video! Shows so much of the progress. Looking forward to the first flight.

Love the "Jurassic Park Cage" transport as well.