Comparison of CRS2 Vehicles

I've been wanting to do this post for awhile - actually ever since SNC successfully did their drop test of the Dream Chaser a while back (2017-11-11) and there was a Faceboook discussion on the costs of all the CRS2 vehicles and their capabilities. Let's do a breakdown.

CRS2 Vehicles

The Commerical Resupply Services 2 contract from NASA was awarded to three companies: SpaceX, OrbitalATK, and Sierra Nevada Corporation. The total value of all contracts awarded were close to $14 billion. Each company was awarded a minimum of six launches each. This is for missions from 2019-2024.

I thumbed around the internet to put the following table together. Most sources came from here. Dream Chaser's weight was taken from here, although I'm guessing this is for the Crew version.

Here's a general chart for you of the above. Apologies for the poor formatting, I'm not great with trying to embed Google Spreadsheets into Blogger.

 Let's go over some additional facts.

Dragon

Let's note that Dragon is the first commercial spacecraft that was able to take cargo to the international space station and then come back to Earth in 2012. That in of itself is a pretty awesome feat. It has the ability to return cargo to Earth. 

SpaceX is also currently working on Dragon 2 which is the human rated version of their spacecraft; although I believe for CRS2 the original Dragon is the craft that will be used for supply missions.

We should note that SpaceX is no longer building new Dragon spacecrafts but instead refurbishing them to reflights, and have done so already, reflying a space craft already.

Cygnus

We should note that this is the only spacecraft of the 3 for the CRS2 contracts that does not have the ability to return cargo to Earth.

Dream Chaser

This spacecraft has a lifted body design, which is slightly different from the Space Shuttle which was a delta wing design. It also the lowest return to Earth force, at 1.5Gs. It also has the ability to return to Earth at any major airport. These two factors are useful for science experiments that need rapid return  (the ability to land at any major airport allows you to fly your experiment to the city where your researchers are located) and are sensitive to forces during re-entry to earth.