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| Re: Dream Chaser (1067856) | |||
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Re: Dream Chaser |
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Posted by WillD on Fri May 24 20:12:56 2013, in response to Dream Chaser, posted by Avid Reader on Fri May 24 14:38:02 2013. A very impressive vehicle. I'm hoping it makes it through whatever drawdowns in the Commercial Crew development program are forced on NASA. Unfortunately many congressmen, most of them Republicans, would like to see NASA's commercial spaceflight program scrapped in favor of the NASA operated Space Launch System, which would be far more beneficial to their constituents. Chances are that with NASA being mandated to rob the commercial crew program to fund the "exploration" SLS development program they will be forced to draw down to just two commercial spaceflight providers. Chances are that those providers will end up being SpaceX's DragonRider, and Boeing's CST100. The Dreamchaser might have stood a secure chance if Congress had funded NASA to the levels the president requested, but unfortunately they chose not to. Now its future hangs in the balance depending on subsequent budgets.It's worth mentioning that the last photo might be a lifting body crew vehicle, but it's definitely not anything related to the HL-20 or Dreamchaser. And in the second to last photo the Titan III was retired a decade ago, and the National Launch System was a stillborn proposal for a family of rockets from the 1980s. Today's EELVs, if allowed to expand into the HLV range (particularly the Delta IV, which uses the STME-derived RS-68), would roughly correspond to the NLS family. The Dreamchaser will launch on an EELV, the Atlas V rocket powered by a Russian RD180 engine. |
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