Feb 8, 2010
Posted by Ray Katz in NASA, private
NASA money for 7-person spaceship
The biggest share of stimulus money awarded by NASA for a private spacecraft went to Sierra Nevada Corporation…which is developing Dream Chaser to carry astronauts to the International Space Station.
The craft doesn’t exist yet (except as a full-scale mockup, pictured above), but the company claims it will be ready to go in 2014.
The $20 million award will be used to fine tune the project.
Sierra Nevada Corporation was acquired by SpaceDev Corp. In 2008.
Correction as per commenter below: Sierra Nevada Corporation acquired SpaceDev in 2008.
You have Sierra Nevada Corp. and SpaceDev exactly backwards. SpaceDev was founded by Jim Benson and have been developing the Dream Chaser for the past several years. SpaceDev was acquired by Sierra Nevada two years ago, just prior to Jim Benson’s death.
The Dream Chaser has the distinction of being one of only two concepts for near-term orbital transport that are not capsule designs. The other is, of course, the X-41. A prototype of the X-41 is currently being prepared for launch atop an Atlas V rocket sometime in the next year by the USAF.
I look forward to seeing both of these designs brought closer to flight.