The shuttle's juniors

With the shuttle team 'retiring', it is necessary to find alternative means of space transport. So, the US Air and Space Administration (NASA) signed a contract worth $ 80 million with Sierra Nevada (SNC) to design a new space transport ship.

>>>NASA farewell to shuttle Endeavor

SNC has attempted to design a re-usable spaceship called Dream Chaser and will test altitude in 2012. If successful, it will become an astronaut and cargo line of spacecraft. onto the international space station and the other low orbits of the earth. It is worth noting that the cost for Dream Chaser is not too expensive.

Model of space ship Dream Chaser - (Photo: SNC)

Dream Chaser takes off vertically and lands horizontally. It is designed to carry up to 7 astronauts but can also operate independently in the form of unmanned devices when carrying goods. Americans expect Dream Chaser to be independent of Russia's Soyuz, which costs $ 50 million to transport an astronaut to the ISS space station with Soyuz. This new generation spacecraft can separate cargo compartments for the ISS and then return, landing on a regular runway. It does not contain toxic substances like the shuttle shuttle, so people can access it as soon as it lands.

Designing Dream Chaser is based on NASA's HL-20 space taxi facility, which was developed by the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia in the years 1980-1990. The inspiration for the invention of the HL-20 came from the image of a mysterious spacecraft recalled in the Atlantic in 1982, which was later revealed to be the Soviet SOVIET Bor-4 . The highlight of the design of this spacecraft is that the departure and return are not so dependent on aircraft wings, but mainly use the air flow acting on the hull.

Dream Chaser is designed to launch space from a rocket. The drone test will be carried out with Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo which was originally built to serve the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft. If the tests are successful next year and the production process is on schedule, Dream Chaser will be officially put into orbit in 2014. It will be launched by Atlas V boosters from United Launch Alliance, after In the space, Dream Chaser will be separated from the rocket, using a hybrid engine to adjust the trajectory and connect to the ISS.

The ISS international space station is not the final destination of Dream Chaser, but SNC has a greater ambition to partner with billionaire Richard Branson to do business in space tourism. The economic strength of Dream Chaser is that it can be reused 50-100 times.