Sierra Nevada Corp. opened part of its plant in Louisville on Tuesday to the public to celebrate the arrival of the primary structure of Dream Chaser, a winged craft scheduled to make its first flight to the International Space Station in 2021.

The 2,200-pound, all-composite structure is the core element of the craft. It was designed by Sierra Nevada and built by Lockheed Martin in facilities in Fort Worth, Texas, and New Orleans.

Now, Sierra Nevada Space Systems employees will start adding the mechanical, electrical and other systems theyve built and tested. Fully outfitted, Dream Chaser will weigh 24,000 pounds.

Were going to do an employee event tomorrow so that all of our team that has worked so hard on this can come together and celebrate. And then were locking the doors and were going to build, said Steven Lindsey, the companys senior vice president of space exploration systems. Its all about building this thing and getting it to flight.

Lindsey, a former astronaut who piloted two space shuttle flights for NASA and commanded another three, is among the Sierra Nevada employees who have been working on Dream Chaser for more than a decade. The company won a NASA contract for six missions through 2024.

The flight will be automated, so there will be no crew. However, Sierra Nevada has said it hopes to one day send a crew to the space station.

NASA will pay Sierra Nevada roughly $2 billion to $2.5 billion for its services, according to the agency. Dream Chaser will ferry supplies and other cargo to the space station and bring back such items as important scientific projects.

For its part, Sierra Nevada has invested more than $1 billion in the program, Lindsey said.

Another Colorado company, United Launch Alliance, is also involved with Dream Chaser. Sierra Nevada selected the Centennial-based company to provide the launch vehicle, which will be the new Vulcan Centaur rocket.

Dream Chaser will be the only winged spacecraft flying to the space station, harking back to the space shuttles design. It is about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide. While smaller than the space shuttle, the Dream Chaser was designed to hold close to the same volume, up to about 12,000 pounds.

The Dream Chasers ability to land on a runway is seen as vital to carrying out one of its primary missions, ferrying scientific materials. Kirk Shireman, the International Space Stations program manager, said a recent mission didnt make the deadline for getting time-sensitive results to scientists because of the remoteness of the touch-down and logistical problems.

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

In contrast, the Dream Chaser will return to the Kennedy Space Center, close to the scientists who are waiting, Shireman said.

The Dream Chaser was designed with the idea of ensuring as smooth a ride as possible for the cargo, Sierra Nevada officials said. The vehicles wings arent as big as the space shuttles. Most of the lift is created by its underside, which is wide and flat. An advantage of whats called a lifting-body spacecraft is that the g-forces, or gravitational forces, are much lower during re-entry than on a capsule, according to the company.

Landing safely and softly on the runway while being close to our facilities is really, really important, Shireman said.

John Curry, Sierra Nevadas senior director and co-program manager of space exploration systems, said the company incorporated lessons learned from the design and flights of the space shuttle. I really do think we have a game-changer here.

Sierra Nevadas Dream Chaser team is made up of about 600 employees, with 400 of those in Colorado. Space Systems is one of the business divisions of Sierra Nevada, based in Sparks, Nev.

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Sierra Nevadas Dream Chaser closer to reality with production of spacecraft starting in earnest - The Denver Post