Sierra Nevada Lays Off Dream Chaser Staff

No surprise. See my Aug. 15th post.

DARPA/USAF is too chicken to step up.

Well let them waste some more millions on their own studies likely only to replicate yet another version of Dream Chaser, but years and years off.
Just more pie-in-the-sky for interesting Popular Mechanics articles...

Dave

David Spain wrote:
DARPA/USAF is too chicken to step up.

For what purpose would the USAF need a manned spacecraft? Perhaps
DreamChaser is larger than the X-37B but it would seem the USAF
already has vertical take-off, horizontal landing (long duration)
already sorted for unmanned and no one has yet discovered the USAF's
cloaked, manned space station they built from plans by some guy named
Drax...

rick jones
--
a wide gulf separates "what if" from "if only"
these opinions are mine, all mine; HP might not want them anyway...
feel free to post, OR email to rick.jones2 in hp.com but NOT BOTH...

Yes, perhaps you are right. The DARPA study appears to be for unmanned vehicles with faster turnaround than is offered with X37-B. It's hard to argue why the USAF would need a manned orbital vehicle UNLESS, you want to have a multipurpose surveillance platform that can be multi-tasked or quickly re-tasked while in orbit in response to changing "parameters" on the ground being surveyed.

IMHO some interesting trade-offs here. Design an operationally cheaper drone from scratch and take the time hit in years or decades or go with an operationally more expensive manned spacecraft that is close to flying within a few years time.

Dave

In article ,
says...

Yes, perhaps you are right. The DARPA study appears to be for unmanned vehicles with faster turnaround than is offered with X37-B. It's hard to argue why the USAF would need a manned orbital vehicle UNLESS, you want to have a multipurpose surveillance platform that can be multi-tasked or quickly re-tasked while in orbit in response to changing "parameters" on the ground being surveyed.

IMHO some interesting trade-offs here. Design an operationally cheaper drone from scratch and take the time hit in years or decades or go with an operationally more expensive manned spacecraft that is close to flying within a few years time.

Dave

USAF has "wanted" something like this since the 1960s. They're still
waiting for their nirvana where they can launch anywhere, anyplace,
anytime to any orbit. The era of EELVs has not helped at all.

Jeff
--
"the perennial claim that hypersonic airbreathing propulsion would
magically make space launch cheaper is nonsense -- LOX is much cheaper
than advanced airbreathing engines, and so are the tanks to put it in
and the extra thrust to carry it." - Henry Spencer