Sierra Nevada Advances Orbital Vehicle Project With NASA; Fatih Ozmen Quoted

NASA has announced that a reusable, multi-mission orbital vehicle by Sierra Nevada Corp. is now ready for full-scale manufacturing and testing after passing an integration review validating its design performance.

The company said Tuesday it has already started integrating critical parts of the Dream Chaser spacecraft, including major structural components, thermal protection system tiles and avionics hardware.

“We are one step closer to the Dream Chaser spacecraft’s first orbital flight,” SNC CEO Fatih Ozmen said.

“This comprehensive review approved moving the Dream Chaser program into the production phase so we can get Dream Chaser to market as a critical space station resupply spacecraft as soon as possible,” he added.

SNC hopes to put the spacecraft into service in late 2020 to perform space cargo resupply, disposal and return services for the International Space Station.

The company is building Dream Chaser under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract with NASA.