The Dream Chaser, derived from a lost Soviet space plane, was an unusual triumph for Sierra Neva-da Corp.(Provided by Sierra Nevada)
Re: Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser derived from lost Soviet space plane, Feb. 28 business news story.
As an aerospace engineer and retired Air Force officer, I read with enjoyment your article about the Dream Chaser being modeled after the Soviet BOR-4 spaceplane. But I was surprised when the article claimed we were stunned at how well it performed. In reality, we were stunned at how well the Soviets copied our Dyna Soar spaceplane of the 1950s and the Martin and Northrop lifting bodies of the 1960s. The Northrop M2-F2 was piloted and landed on a runway. What should really be stunning is that when I was in engineering school in the late 1960s, we were starting to fly capsules and rockets; and that now almost five decades later, we have regressed to capsules, rockets and unmanned, tiny space planes.
We have the technology to build reusable, single-stage-to-orbit space planes. We simply do not have the will and our politicians lack the vision.
José M. López, Centennial
The writer is an engineering lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
This letter was published in the March 6 edition.
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