SPARKS, Nev., 02 Feb. 2013. Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company of Littleton, Colo., is joining the Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) Dream Chaser team. Lockheed Martin will be an exclusive partner to SNC on NASA's Certification Products Contract (CPC) and has been competitively selected to build the composite structure for the Dream Chaser at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, La. SNC was awarded $10 million for CPC Phase 1 to work with NASA towards government certification of the SNC Dream Chaser orbital crew transportation system.
Lockheed Martin is developing NASA's Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and brings extensive and current experience in obtaining NASA certification for a crewed flight vehicle to the Dream Chaser program.
The SNC and Lockheed Martin partnership will enable the team to collaborate on vehicle development, certification, and reaching additional customer markets for the Dream Chaser orbital vehicle. The team will work with NASA to execute the first round of the CPC contract and move towards offering the Dream Chaser Space System as a commercial solution to crew and cargo servicing of the International Space Station.
The composite structure for the Dream Chaser flight test vehicle is being built under the SNC $212.5 million Space Act Agreement for the NASA Commercial Crew Integrated Capability Program. This effort leverages the extensive Lockheed Martin experience in building composite structures for spacecraft and high performance aircraft. With the addition of Lockheed Martin as a partner on the Dream Chaser program, SNC is now working with partner organizations in over 15 states on NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability program.
