...awarded $212.5 million as part of NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) Program. The 21 month contract will begin in August of 2012. SNC has integrated the efforts of its powerful team of leading aerospace companies, academic institutions, and NASA Centers to significantly advance the development of the Dream Chaser orbital crew vehicle and the associated mission, ground, and crew systems, as well as launch vehicle integration. To date, the SNC team has completed 19 milestones; including a full system Preliminary Design Review and first captive carry flight, in addition to a significant number of additional tasks. The remaining milestone under the second round of NASA funding will be an Approach and Landing Test scheduled for later this year, mirroring the first flight test of the Space Shuttle Program. The full CCiCap Program will allow SNC to complete development of the Dream Chaser Space System and transport crews to space as early as 2016.

This artist's rendering shows the Dream Chaser, a mini-space shuttle developed by Sierra Nevada Corp. and its entry in the NASA private space taxi race. The design is based on a spacecraft design developed, tested and abandoned by the Soviet Union and reverse-engineered by NASA. The corporation was working on it for private missions before NASA opened the door to private space taxi competition.
(Sierra Nevada image)