No longer hide ambitions! Not satisfied with having 4 types of spacecraft, the United States wants to restart the space shuttle!

The space shuttle era was the most glorious era of human spaceflight, but unfortunately due to two tragic accidents and expensive operating costs, it was completely retired 10 years ago, leaving only the memories of its former glory.

Space Shuttle

Compared with spacecraft, the advantages of the space shuttle

1、Large load capacity, carrying a large number of people.

2, horizontal landing, reusable, short reuse cycle.

3、Good maneuverability in orbit, can launch, repair, recover and even capture satellites.

Space stations capture spacecraft

4, due to the launch and return process acceleration and deceleration process being slow, the astronaut's physical requirements are low, and ordinary people can train for a few months to go to heaven.

In addition to the advantages, of course, there are many disadvantages, mainly extremely complex technology (far better than spaceships), expensive to build and launch, there are risks! So, in the United States that the space shuttle retired 10 years ago!

U.S. Space Shuttle version 2.0

The Space Shuttle has unparalleled advantages, so after the retirement of the Space Shuttle, the United States has not completely abandoned the spacecraft with wings, and has been seeking alternatives to the Space Shuttle. In addition to the non-civilian X-37B, SpaceDev developed the winged spacecraft "Dream Chaser" based on NASA's extensive technology accumulation of HL-20 lift bodies back then.

Since SpaceDev was acquired by Sierra Nevada in 2008, the Dream Chaser is also known as a competitor of Sierra Nevada with SpaceX Dragon and Boeing CTS-100 spacecraft (Starbus)!

Although the Dream Chaser received funding from NASA, in the first unpowered flight test in 2013, also demonstrated a high degree of stability. Unfortunately, the landing failed to deploy the left landing gear, causing the airframe to slide off the runway, which was very embarrassing. Because of this failure, Dream Chaser lost to Dragon and CTS-100 spacecraft and failed to win the commercial manned contract given by NASA in 2014. The contract.

However, Sierra Nevada did not give up and continued the research of the "Dream Chaser" space shuttle, completed the testing of all critical systems, and completed the landing test in 2017.

After unremitting efforts, Dream Chaser has finally received NASA's production approval and will make six cargo deliveries starting next year, after which it will begin carrying people. Update, Dream Chaser has been allowed to land on the Florida Shuttle dedicated runway!

Dream Chaser, the new generation of the space shuttle

"Dream Chaser is much smaller than previous space shuttles, about a quarter the size of Atlantis, and can carry up to seven people. "Dream Chaser can carry 5.5 tons of cargo to the space station and 1.85 tons of cargo back to the ground smoothly and horizontally, in addition to 3.4 tons of space junk to be burned near the atmosphere.

Dream Chaser's design criteria: the ability to "fly frequently and safely, land on most runways, and have excellent economics". Safety, reuse, and economy are what U.S. spaceflight is seeking today, and what all of humanity is seeking in spaceflight.

Many people often sing the praises of U.S. spaceflight, believing it to be in decline. This mentality is very dangerous. It is easy to belittle your rivals and make yourself proud and uninspired. The overall strength of the U.S. space is still the world's first, 10 years after the retirement of the space shuttle, the United States has developed 3 +1 new spacecraft, ask which country can do that?

Even in the case of having 4 types of spacecraft, the United States still has to develop the space shuttle, which shows its space ambitions are huge and must not be vigilant! The United States is the country with the most experience in the space shuttle, and they know the advantages of bringing wings.

Dream Chaser in the fairing

Our horizontal landing spacecraft

Although China does not have a clear public plan for the space shuttle, the successful test of the reusable spacecraft that caused a lot of buzz among the world's space fans last year was estimated by many to be an unmanned version of the space shuttle. This shows that China also has a very strong technical accumulation in horizontal landing reusable space tools.

Perhaps soon, China's space shuttle, or even more advanced space shuttle will appear in front of everyone, please do not be surprised!