spacetoday.net: Sierra Nevada completes CCDev-2 agreement with NASA

Posted: Tue, Dec 17, 2013, 7:41 AM ET (1241 GMT)
Dream Chaser ETA first landing (SNC)

Sierra Nevada Corporation announced Monday that NASA has signed off on the final milestone of an earlier commercial crew agreement with the company, a glide flight of the company's Dream Chaser vehicle, despite a problem with the vehicle's landing gear. Sierra Nevada said it received the full value of the award for that final milestone, $8 million, for the glide flight of the Dream Chaser engineering test article that took place on October 26 at Edwards Air Force Base in California. The flight "exceeded predictions and requirements," the company said in a statement, demonstrating the aerodynamic performance of the lifting body vehicle. That test, though, ended with the failed deployment of the vehicle's left landing gear, causing it to skid off the runway upon landing. The company did not disclose the status of the investigation into the landing gear failure and repairs to the vehicle since the test. Sierra Nevada is now working on its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) award it received in August 2012, and is expected to submit a proposal to the next round of the commercial crew program in January.