Dream Chaser Damaged In Landing Accident At Edwards AFB

RocketAcademy writes "The test article for Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft suffered a landing accident on Saturday when the left main landing gear failed to deploy, causing the vehicle to flip over. NBC News quotes a Sierra Nevada engineer saying that the pilot would have walked away. Sierra Nevada Corporation is developing the Dream Chaser to support the International Space Station as part of NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo program. It is not yet known what effect the mishap will have on Dream Chaser development. A number of rocket vehicles have suffered landing-gear mishaps in the recent past. Several years ago, concerns over spacecraft gear design led to a call for NASA to fund a technology prize for robust, light-weight landing gear concepts."

Comments

Re:Would have walked away?

[pe1rxq]

RTFA, the reporting is fine, you are doing a lousy job at reading.

It was unmanned... that is why there are no injuries.
The damage was such that if a pilot had been in there he would have been able to walk away.

Re:What a waste of taxpayer dollars...

[Sarten-X]

The ISS should be a private venture, as it gives no returns whatsoever.

So in other words, it shouldn't exist at all. What private company is going to embark on an endeavor with "no returns whatsoever"?

Of course, you're only talking about monetary returns. In terms of scientific value, the ISS experiments and observations have been some of the most productive projects in recent years.