spacetoday.net: Lockheed Martin joins Dream Chaser team

Posted: Thu, Jan 31, 2013, 7:10 AM ET (1210 GMT)
SNC Dream Chaser illustration (SNC)

Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the company developing the Dream Chaser commercial crew vehicle, announced Wednesday it has added Lockheed Martin to its team to help with development and certification of the spacecraft. Lockheed will support SNC's work on a NASA certification products contract as SNC's "exclusive partner". Lockheed will separately build the composite structure for the next Dream Chaser test vehicle at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. SNC is one of three companies will Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) awards from NASA to support continued development of commercial vehicles for transporting crews to and from low Earth orbit. Company officials said they planned to perform drop tests of a Dream Chaser test vehicle, releasing it from a helicopter and allowing the lifting body to glide back to a runway landing, at Edwards Air Force Base in California in the next six to eight weeks.