Lockheed Martin [LMT] has joined Sierra Nevada’s (SNC) Dream Chaser program to compete for NASA’s Commercial Crew spaceflight program, according to a company statement.
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 toward 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.
SNC, along with Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), Boeing [BA], and Blue Origin are participating in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) with the goal developing capabilities to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit for potential future government and commercial customers (Defense Daily, Jan. 11).
Dream Chaser is a vehicle similar to the space shuttle. NASA estimates a certification contract award for 2014.