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In theory, yes, there is an unfunded extension of Commercial Crew that NASA could fund to restart Dream Chaser. But they're not going to do that. If Starliner is dropped, they won't have "free" money they can just reallocate to SNC. Instead, they'd have to go get new money from Congress, which seems pretty unlikely.

SNC never proposed to fly a manned Dream Chaser inside a fairing, because NASA rules do not permit a crewed vehicle to launch inside an enclosed fairing. The crewed version of Dream Chaser was to fly exposed on top of an Atlas V.

Looking at the latest ESA crewed capsule (CSTS), the launch escape system is attached to a capsule cover, which would be pulled off with the capsule in the event of an abort. The two parts would only separate after the crew is clear of the launch vehicle. No problem; this is how Apollo worked, for example. But I can't find any example of putting a crewed capsule inside a separate, non-connected, fairing.

<blockquote data-quote="TomS" data-source="post: 452824" data-attributes="member: 1484">In theory, yes, there is an unfunded extension of Commercial Crew that NASA could fund to restart Dream Chaser.&nbsp; But they're not going to do that.&nbsp; If Starliner is dropped, they won't have &quot;free&quot; money they can just reallocate to SNC.&nbsp; Instead, they'd have to go get new money from Congress, which seems pretty unlikely.&nbsp; SNC never proposed to fly a manned Dream Chaser inside a fairing, because NASA rules do not permit a crewed vehicle to launch inside an enclosed fairing.&nbsp;&nbsp; The crewed version of Dream Chaser was to fly exposed on top of an Atlas V.&nbsp; Looking at the latest ESA crewed capsule (CSTS), the launch escape system is attached to a capsule cover, which would be pulled off with the capsule in the event of an abort.&nbsp; The two parts would only separate after the crew is clear of the launch vehicle.&nbsp; No problem; this is how Apollo worked, for example.&nbsp; But I can't find any example of putting a crewed capsule inside a separate, non-connected, fairing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="TomS, post: 452824, member: 1484"] In theory, yes, there is an unfunded extension of Commercial Crew that NASA could fund to restart Dream Chaser. But they're not going to do that. If Starliner is dropped, they won't have "free" money they can just reallocate to SNC. Instead, they'd have to go get new money from Congress, which seems pretty unlikely. SNC never proposed to fly a manned Dream Chaser inside a fairing, because NASA rules do not permit a crewed vehicle to launch inside an enclosed fairing. The crewed version of Dream Chaser was to fly exposed on top of an Atlas V. Looking at the latest ESA crewed capsule (CSTS), the launch escape system is attached to a capsule cover, which would be pulled off [I]with[/I] the capsule in the event of an abort. The two parts would only separate after the crew is clear of the launch vehicle. No problem; this is how Apollo worked, for example. But I can't find any example of putting a crewed capsule inside a separate, non-connected, fairing. [/QUOTE]

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