The Sierra Nevada Corporation's entry into the new space industry is the Dream Chaser, a spacecraft the size of a business jet that it's building to take cargo and passengers-up to seven at a time-into low Earth orbit. Although the craft is based on NASA designs, developing any vehicle is risky. And even if Sierra Nevada succeeds in building a working Dream Chaser, the company will face significant obstacles, says Scott Pace, director of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. Any new spacecraft will be unproven in terms of safety and reliability, so customers like the U.S. government (which so far has signed contracts only for transporting cargo) will be cautious about risking astronauts on a new design. It's a bit of a catch-22. "There is potential for the new vehicles to be safer than the space shuttle, but the only way you really know is by flying," says Pace.
展开▼
