NASA's Commercial Crew Development Program
Development of the Dream Chaser has been supported by internal SNC funding, a non-reimburseable NASA Space Act Agreement (SAA), and two funded NASA SAA’s through the Commercial Crew Development Program (CCDev).
In 2010, SNC was awarded $20 million as a part of the first CCDev SAA. SNC completed the four planned milestones on time which included program implementation plans, manufacturing readiness capability, hybrid rocket test fires, and the prelimary structure design. Further initial Dream Chaser tests included the drop test of a 15% scaled version at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. The 5 foot long model was dropped from 14,000 ft. to test flight stability and collect aerodynamic data for flight control surfaces.
The second SAA under the CCDev 2 Program awarded SNC with $80 million in May 2011. Since then, nearly a dozen further milestones have been completed. Some of these milestones included testing of the airfoil fin shape, integrated flight software and hardware, landing gear, and a full scale captive carry flight test. The Dream Chaser is on track for operational commercial human flight capability as early as 2016.
Read more about this topic: Dream Chaser
Famous quotes containing the words nasa, commercial, crew, development and/or program:
“If we did not have such a thing as an airplane today, we would probably create something the size of NASA to make one.”
—H. Ross Perot (b. 1930)
“A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking the right tone for every occasion.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The crew was complete: it included a Boots—
A maker of Bonnets and Hoods—
A Barrister, brought to arrange their disputes—
And a Broker, to value their goods.”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)
“This was the Eastham famous of late years for its camp- meetings, held in a grove near by, to which thousands flock from all parts of the Bay. We conjectured that the reason for the perhaps unusual, if not unhealthful development of the religious sentiment here, was the fact that a large portion of the population are women whose husbands and sons are either abroad on the sea, or else drowned, and there is nobody but they and the ministers left behind.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The blacksmith dropped his hammer, the carpenter his plane, the mason his trowel, the farmer his sickle, the baker his loaf, and the tapster his bottle. All were off for the mines, some on horses, some on carts, and some on crutches, and one went in a litter.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)