Now SNC's Space Systems
On December 16, 2008 SNC announced it had completed its acquisition of SpaceDev. SNC is now developing an orbital spacecraft called the Dream Chaser. On February 1, 2010, Sierra Nevada Corporation was awarded $20 million in seed money in phase 1 of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program for the development of the DreamChaser. Of the $50 million awarded in the phase 1 CCDev program, Dream Chaser's award represents the largest share of the funds.
On August 3rd, 2012, NASA announced new agreements with the Sierra Nevada Corporation and two other companies to design and develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years. Advances made by these companies under newly signed Space Act Agreements through the agency's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) initiative are intended to ultimately lead to the availability of commercial human spaceflight services for government and commercial customers. As part of this agreement, Sierra Nevada Corporation was awarded $212.5 million, ostensibly to continue development and testing of its Dream Chaser spacecraft. The Dream Chaser is modeled after the retired U.S. Space Shuttle with a Lifting-Body design.
Read more about this topic: Sierra Nevada Corporation, SpaceDev
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