Dream Chaser spacecraft slated for 2021

A long-anticipated Dream Chaser space mission — one that will give developing countries the chance to fly experiments and other microgravity payloads into space — will launch in 2021, officials from Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems and the United Nations announced.

The 14-day mission, which will allow United Nations member states to send payloads to low-earth orbit, builds on the memorandum of understanding signed in June by Sierra Nevada Corp. and the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA).

Mission officials will brief U.N. member states and potential payload providers about the goals of the mission and solicit proposals. Payloads will be selected in early 2018 to allow time for development and integration into the Dream Chaser. The launch and landing sites for the mission are yet to be determined.

Sierra Nevada and U.N. officials made their announcement Tuesday at the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Mission funding will come from several different sources, UNOOSA director Simonetta Di Pippo said, including major sponsors and individual countries that would pay prorated portions of mission costs.

“One of UNOOSA’s core responsibili-

ties is to promote international cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space,” Di Pippo said in the release. “I am proud to say that one of the ways (we) will achieve this is by dedicating an entire microgravity mission to United Nations member states, many of which do not have the infrastructure or financial backing to have a standalone space program.”

In July, Sierra Nevada Space unveiled a model of its Dream Chaser cargo taxi, saying then that it expected to be ready to ferry supplies to the International Space Station by the end of 2019.

Sierra Nevada has been working on the Dream Chaser for 11 years and has been talking with NASA for five of them. The company was vying for a contract to shuttle people to the space station, eventually losing out to Boeing Co. and SpaceX.

The company then refocused on commercial applications for the craft. In January, the reusable craft was selected by NASA for at least six missions between now and 2024.

“Our goal is to pay it forward,” Sierra Nevada owner and president Eren Ozmen said in a statement. “That means leveraging the creation and success of our Dream Chaser spacecraft to benefit future generations of innovators like us all around the world.”