Sierra Nevada Corporation SNC Space Systems’ team members tow the Dream Chaser flight vehicle along a concrete runway at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California for range testing and taxi tow. Image credit: NASA

[Satellite TODAY 07-30-13] MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) has signed a $1.7 million contract with Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) to develop an engineering concept solution to provide on-board communication signal processing capabilities for its Dream Chaser crew transportation vehicle.

SNC is one of only three companies funded under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program aimed at developing a reusable spacecraft to transport crew and critical cargo to the International Space Station (ISS) and then return to Earth.

If successful, this work could form the basis for an operational communications solution to be incorporated into the future reusable crew transportation spacecraft, according to a written statement from MDA.