It is expected that the most load-carrying version of the Vulcan rocket will be able to deliver payloads weighing up to 34,9 tons into orbit. To launch heavy loads into orbit, the rocket configuration allows the installation of up to 6 solid-state side accelerators. It is already known that the new American Vulcan launch vehicle will be two-stage. It is the use of liquefied natural gas (methane) instead of kerosene as fuel that is an innovative feature of this rocket engine. In the new rocket, fundamentally new American-made engines will be at the first stage, we are talking about BE-4 methane-oxygen engines. According to plans, the first flight of the new Vulcan launch vehicle should take place in April 2021 of the year. A new missile project is being created as part of public-private partnerships. Work on the successor of the Atlas rocket, the first stage of which a Russian-made RD-180 engine is installed, has been underway in the United States since 2014. In this regard, the Vulcan heavy-duty carrier rocket will replace the Atlas-5 rocket. Moreover, both of these families of rockets have been used by Americans for more than half a century. ULA uses three main types of launch vehicles to launch various payloads into space: Atlas-5, Delta-2 and Delta-4. ULA, which was established in December 2006, boasts the successful launch of more than 130 satellites, which provide global communications, observation of the Earth’s surface, and solve various scientific problems. The combined legacy of these corporations in aircraft and space exploration is enormous. ULA is a joint space enterprise owned by two giants of American industry - Boeing and Lockheed Martin. SNC notes that they opted for ULA because of their close cooperation in the implementation of the Dream Chaser space project, and also because of the reputation that the United Launch Alliance has in particular in the field of flight safety and punctuality of launches. Spacecraft Dream Chaser and Vulcan booster For example, the Atlas 5 rocket, on which the Russian RD-180 engine is installed, was previously considered a possible carrier. At the same time, SNC emphasizes that a wide range of conventional missiles that are already on the market can be used to launch a transport spacecraft.
The cargo spacecraft will be launched using the Vulcan rocket, which is being developed by another American company, the United Launch Alliance (ULA). “Dream Runner”) aboard the International Space Station. Sierra Nevada Corporation has found a replacement for the Atlas 5 rocket with Russian RD-180 enginesĪccording to a published press release, representatives of the American company Sierra Nevada Corporation decided on a launch rocket that will be used for the first six launches of the space shuttle Dream Chaser (Eng. In addition, SNC is well established in the market of civilian, military and commercial solutions and is a top-level supplier for the US Air Force, as well as one of the fastest growing companies in America. Today, SNC, founded back in 1963, is one of the three most innovative US space companies.
There is no doubt that Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) is implementing its project. Within the framework of this program, Dream Chaser space planes will carry out six flights to the International Space Station by 2024. It was in this capacity that the company was one of the three winners of the competition for the second phase of the supply of the ISS Commercial Crew Program 2. After that, Sierra Nevada Corporation decided to switch to creating a transport version of the shuttle. But after the accident in the first flight in 2013 in September of next year, the project did not receive the necessary funding from NASA, falling out of the number of participants in the Commercial Crew Program, contracts for which went to SpaceX and Boeing, which offered their options for manned spacecraft Dragon V2 and CST- 100 Starliner respectively. With the help of the shuttle, the Americans expected to deliver their astronauts aboard the ISS. Initially, the new Dream Chaser spacecraft was developed in a manned version.