Another landing locale may have just opened up for the private Dream Chaser space plane.
Spaceship maker Sierra Space signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Tuesday (June 21) with Spaceport America, potentially paving the way for Dream Chaser to touch down at the New Mexico facility after its orbital missions.
While not a done deal, the MOU aligns the two entities in their "mutual pursuit" of a reentry license from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for Dream Chaser landings in New Mexico. The FAA has already approved the spacecraft to land at Huntsville International Airport in Alabama, Sierra Space representatives noted in a press release.
Spaceport America's potential inclusion among approved landing sites will "continue to open up affordable access to space for all," Tom Vice, Sierra Space CEO, said in the release. No timeline was offered for Spaceport America landings, if approved.
In pictures: Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser aces glide test flight
NASA has tasked Sierra Nevada with at least six uncrewed International Space Station (ISS) cargo missions using Dream Chaser. The flights will lift off from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rockets.
In addition to the Alabama site, Dream Chaser is also in line to touch down at NASA's former space shuttle runway at the Launch and Landing Facility, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Other potentially compatible runways are in the works at Oita Airport in Japan and Spaceport Cornwall in the United Kingdom, Sierra Space said in its recent release.
The company at first was thinking of Dream Chaser as a crewed vehicle for ISS astronaut flights, but NASA eventually selected SpaceX and Boeing to carry crews to and from the ISS. Sierra Space may eventually build a crewed version of the space plane for other clients, however.
NASA currently receives cargo shipments at the ISS from SpaceX and Northrop Grumman. SpaceX's Dragon capsule returns experiments to Earth during re-entries, while Northrop Grumman's Cygnus is designed to burn up naturally in the atmosphere. Dream Chaser will offer another way to get cargo down to Earth from the ISS.
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