PARIS — The German Space Center, DLR, and Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC) have renewed for another two years their cooperation on SNC’s Dream Chaser lifting-body spacecraft to focus on both crewed and uncrewed mission applications.
The agreement, which stretches through 2017, follows a 2013 no-exchange-of-funds arrangement in which DLR, which is Germany’s space agency, and Sparks, Nevada-based SNC investigated possible European contributions to the Dream Chaser. OHB SE of Bremen, Germany, was part of the original study called Dream Chaser for European Utilization.
The European Space Agency had a similar agreement with SNC that lasted for a year starting in early 2014.
The new SNC-DLR agreement was signed April 16 during the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“We recognize the significant value of the Dream Chaser, especially for [low Earth orbit] and we look forward to working together for new applications,” DLR Executive Chairman Johann-Dietrich Woerner said in a statement after the agreement. “The versatility of the Dream Chaser — crewed or uncrewed — allows for multiple applications such as transportation of cargo and humans as well as director use for activities such as removing space debris.”
Woerner in July will become director-general of the European Space Agency.
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