While Dream Chaser was not chosen for CCDev, it was chosen for the second round of the Commercial Resupply Services, to begin in 2019. A cargo version is being developed which will have folding wings so it can fit in the Atlas V's 5-meter fairing. It will be capable of carrying a total of 5,500 kg of cargo to the International Space Station, and return up to 1,750 kg of cargo to Earth.
An aviator with the U.S. Navy, Crippen was originally chosen to the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, a project involving a military space station, in 1966. When that project was canceled in 1969, Crippen was transferred to NASA. He was selected as pilot of the first Space Shuttle mission, STS-1, along with commander John Young, which he flew on April 12-14, 1981, on the orbiterColumbia.
Crippen would likewise become the first Shuttle pilot to be promoted to commander, leading the STS-7 mission on orbiter Challenger in June 1983. He would command two other missions (STS-41-C and STS-41-G) in 1984. He was training for another mission when the Challenger disaster occurred, and was re-assigned as Deputy Director of Kennedy Space Center in 1987.
Crippen would serve as the Director of Kennedy Space Center from January 1992 until January 1995, when he left NASA. He would hold executive positions at Lockheed Martin and Thiokol before retiring in 2001.
A timed exposure of Space ShuttleColumbia on launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in preparation for her maiden flight, STS-1. To the left of the Shuttle are the fixed and the rotating service structures.
... that Blue Origin NS-31 recently became the first all-female spaceflight in 62 years?
Neil Armstrong on the Moon
…that the original videos of the Apollo 11 astronauts walking on the Moon (pictured) were lost after the mission, and were reported to have been found in June 2009?
…that the Vostok 4 mission was shortened because cosmonautPavel Romanovich Popovich accidentally told flight controllers that he was "observing thunderstorms". This was a coded signal requesting an abort because the cosmonaut was feeling ill, however Popovich was actually trying to inform ground controllers that he could see thunderstorms from space.
