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LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Sierra Nevada Corp. announced on August 14 that it would use United Launch Alliance's Vulcan launcher to ship the Dream Dreamer cargo ship to the International Space Station from the end of 2021.
In a joint announcement at the offices of SNC Space Systems in the suburbs of Denver, the companies announced that SNC had chosen Vulcan for the launch of six Dream Chaser missions on the ISS under the contract with NASA in 2016 with SNC (Commercial Resupply Services).
Dream Chaser will launch a version of the Vulcan with a payload fairing of 5 meters, four solid fuel boosters and a Centaur twin-engine upper stage. This configuration will allow Dream Chaser to deliver more than 5,400 kilograms of cargo to the ISS. Dream Chaser will eliminate approximately 3,175 kilograms of cargo and bring "large quantities" of cargo back to Earth to land on NASA's Kennedy Space Center runway.
Dream Chaser will be Vulcan's "first commercial film," with its first mission in late 2021 on the second flight of the rocket, said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA. "It's a very competitive introductory market right now, and being selected by SNC to complete this block of missions on our Vulcan launcher is a huge honor.
SNC originally planned to use ULA's existing Atlas 5 for at least the initial Dream Chaser mission, and then the end of 2020. Last year, however, the company indicated that it was considering options other than Atlas 5 for future missions of Dream Chaser, including the use of European or Japanese launchers.
The company has opted for the Vulcan for the full block of at least six CRS2 missions. "It's the choice that seems to me the best for this program. I went to Eren and Fatih's house. [Ozmen] to tell them it was better for this program, "said John Curry, director of SNC's Dream Chaser CRS2 program, referring to SNC's President and Chief Executive Officer, respectively.
Eren Ozmen said the company had considered five different launch options, including European and Japanese vehicles – probably the Ariane 6 and H3, respectively – "and, of course, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos", founders of SpaceX and Blue Origin. . "They all have very good abilities."
But, she added, "ULA had a huge advantage because we've been working with ULA since day one," a relationship that goes back to NASA's commercial crew program plans to launch a crewed version of the probe on an Atlas 5.
"Not to mention," she added, "we had a very good competitive price." However, the companies refused to give financial details about the transaction, especially if SNC received a discount for taking the plane of the second Vulcan launch, what ULA describes as "certification" theft of the vehicle. Bruno stated that the price information was "obviously proprietary".
Technical performance was another factor. "We spent a lot of time learning this vehicle to make sure it was correct," Curry said. "Safety and reliability were one of the main reasons we chose this team and this rocket." The companies said that if Vulcan were to suffer delays, it would be possible to transfer the launches to the Atlas 5.
In addition to the six missions under the CRS2 contract, SNC is looking for other opportunities for Dream Chaser, which could use vehicles other than Vulcan. "We are maintaining the ability to fly on other launchers," said John Roth, vice president of strategy and business development for SNC. "We are launching vehicles without agnostics."
The company will also not exclude the possibility of developing a crewed version of the spacecraft, which was set aside almost five years ago when NASA chose Boeing and SpaceX over SNC for commercial crew contracts. Curry noted that SNC had retained a previous agreement on the Space Act for the development of commercial crews, which the agency had extended on an unfunded basis, to take care of any versions of the crewed vehicle. .
"We meet with them regularly to discuss our loading capacity with the CRS2 vehicle and what the bridge for the crew vehicle would be when and if it should happen," he said. "It would not take much time to move from the cargo version to the crewed version."
Bruno, who has called himself a Dream Chaser fan and "cheerleader" since he first saw it, said he was eager to launch the vehicle on Vulcan. "Eren and Fatih, you have entrusted us with your baby, this incredible Dream Chaser vehicle," he said. "We will not let you down."
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