Dream Chaser and Vulcan will launch six cargo missions to the International Space Station.
The Dream Chaser spaceplane, which will ferry cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), now has a rocket to launch on.
Private space company Sierra Nevada Corporation announced today that its highly anticipated mini-spaceplane, the Dream Chaser, will launch into orbit on top of the United Launch Alliance’s future Vulcan Centaur rocket.
The company hopes Dream Chaser will be flying at least six missions to the ISS in the 2020s, following NASA’s contract award to SNC.
Right now resupply missions to the International Space Station from the U.S. are handled by SpaceX and Northrop Grumman, but Sierra Nevada Corp. is poised to send what looks like a mini space shuttle on missions.
The heavy-lift Vulcan Centaur rocket, built by United Launch Alliance (ULA), is currently in production.
Under its Nasa contract, Dream Chaser has to fly a minimum of six missions to the ISS, delivering more than 12,000 lbs. (5,400 kg) of cargo to the space station. The first of these will serve as the Vulcan Centaur's second "certification flight" - which will validate the rocket.
"Our first launch is 2021, so we can't wait to have the first successful mission," said Sierra Nevada Corp's chief executive Fatih Ozmen at a news conference in Louisville, Colorado.
"[Dream Chaser] is the only privately-owned, commercial spaceplane in the world that exists that is runway- and landing-capable and reusable."
Under development since 2004, and it has already completed a few tests. The plan is for the spaceplane to fly into orbit vertically on top of a rocket and then meet up with the ISS. The astronauts on board the station will then use the robotic arm to grab hold of the spaceplane and place it on an available docking port. Once all of the cargo it’s carrying has been offloaded and the mission is complete, the Dream Chaser will separate from the ISS and then reenter the Earth’s atmosphere. Unlike other space capsules that use parachutes to land, the Dream Chaser will land akin to an airplane, gliding down horizontally onto a runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Tory Bruno, chief executive of ULA, said the Vulcan was currently "on time" for its journey to the launch pad in 2021. But he added that if a delay did arise, ULA would use its Atlas V rocket as a back-up.
Dream Chaser was designed as a crew vehicle. Sierra Nevada Corp competed for the NASA contract to send astronauts to the ISS, under the agency's Commercial Crew Program.
The contract eventually went to Boeing and SpaceX, but Sierra Nevada made it to the final round. And the company still wants the spaceplane to fly astronauts one day.
"The bridge to a crewed vehicle is not that far," said John Curry, programme director for Dream Chaser. "The capability is there and we're more than happy to do it, whether it's for Nasa or for somebody else."