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Old November 13th 17, 12:30 PM posted to sci.space.policy
Jeff Findley[_6_]
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Default The Dream Chaser spacecraft has completed a successful free flight

In article ,
says...

"On Saturday, the Dream Chaser space plane completed a milestone in its
development. During an ?approach and landing? test, the spacecraft was dropped
from a helicopter to fly back to a landing strip at Edwards Air Force Base in
California. The company behind the space plane confirmed the successful test in a
tweet on Saturday night, saying, ?The Dream Chaser had a beautiful flight and
landing!?"

See:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017...l-free-flight/


I can't help but feel like Dream Chaser is a day late and a dollar
short. They completed a successful free flight test on the same day
that Orbital ATK was launching yet another Cygnus resupply craft to ISS.

https://www.space.com/38751-orbital-...station-cargo-
launch-crs8.html

Yesterday's launch marks the eighth Cygnus to be sent to ISS.

SpaceX has launched 12 Dragon resupply flights to ISS (not counting the
two test flights).

=============================

And now for the bad news.

=============================


Suborbital Spaceplane company XCOR files for bankruptcy:

"Xcor was making a suborbital reusable launch vehicle (a suborbital spaceplane).

XCOR filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Wednesday in the Eastern District of
California.

Money dried up for XCOR after its subcontract with United Launch Alliance wasn?t
renewed this year. In 2016, XCOR began development on the full scale 25k lbf
thrust liquid hydrogen engine, the 8H21, under a privately funded contract with
ULA."

See:

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/1...ankruptcy.html


Sad news for XCOR. But I always had the feeling that they were a bunch
of engineers that didn't quite know how to put together a business plan.
But that was my opinion based on what I've read as I have had no direct
contact with anyone from XCOR.

There is a brief discussion of the XCOR bankruptcy on ARocket with more
knowledgeable people than I shedding a bit of light on the event.

Jeff

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