Ramona Adams
Sierra Nevada Corp. has achieved a contractual milestone with NASA for the company-built Dream Chaser spacecraft after a test vehicle completed a free-flight test in November.
SNC said Friday Dream Chaser cleared Milestone 4B under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability contract, confirming that the spacecraft is designed to perform safe runway landings from space to Earth.
NASA’s Commercial Crew Program reviewed the resulting subsonic flight and landing performance data from the free-flight test and validated that the spacecraft met or exceeded all requirements.
SNC was granted full payment of the milestone and gathered additional information that will be applied to the final vehicle design.
The company also received a Commercial Resupply Services-2 contract from NASA in January 2016 to conduct at least six cargo delivery missions to and from the International Space Station using Dream Chaser beginning 2020.
Dream Chaser’s next milestone will be a critical design review later this year under the CRS-2 contract.
