LM joins Dream Chaser team

Lockheed Martin has joined Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser team, officials said last week. Jim Crocker, vice president and general manager for civil space at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., said the Sierra Nevada partnership will leverage Lockheed Martin's expertise in human spaceflight and composite aerospace structures. Lockheed Martin will assemble the composite structure for the first space-bound Dream Chaser vehicle at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The company will use composites developed for the F-22 and F-35 fighter planes, Crocker said. Sierra Nevada is developing the Dream Chaser under NASA's commercial crew program, vying to transport astronauts to the International Space Station. (Source: Spaceflight Now, 01/31/13)