Dream Chaser underwent its first flight test today
The competition heats up: Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle underwent its first flight test today in Colorado.
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The competition heats up: Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser mini-shuttle underwent its first flight test today in Colorado.
Readers!
My annual February birthday fund-raising drive for Behind the Black is now over. Thank you to everyone who donated or subscribed. While not a record-setter, the donations were more than sufficient and slightly above average.
As I have said many times before, I can’t express what it means to me to get such support, especially as no one is required to pay anything to read my work. Thank you all again!
For those readers who like my work here at Behind the Black and haven't contributed so far, please consider donating or subscribing. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Now we’re rolling.
Why couldn’t NASA do this 20 years ago?
It looks like one of the old Airforce/NASA lifting body aircraft they tested for years back before the shuttle was first flown.
I guess Steve Austin will be the first pilot. How he lands this one better.
A cheap small taxi/cargo truck style craft.
Launchable from small rockets already in use.
The references to the opening of the “Six Million Dollar Man” TV series are appropriate here. The real problem with lifting bodies is the low speed stability requirements for landing.
That is the reason they were not pursued after extensive testing in the 1960’s. I wish Sierra Nevada luck, but we will see how it all turns out.
IIRC it is a NASA design, much like the Bigellow habs. Maybe our advancements in computers and avionics have made it possible. Sort of like the flying wing.