CRS-2 Contenders- Who do you think will get the contract?

[Nibb31]

It's a cargo vehicle. There is no abort.

The Commercial Crew proposal didn't have a fairing, but it had booster motors on the back for launch abort (the cargo vehicle only has RCS). If the abort was high and fast enough, it would glide to a preselected runway. If it was too low, it would land on parachutes.

Basically, in addition to wings, landing gear, and hydraulics, the crew version also had to carry abort motors all the way to orbit and back, and parachutes, which was a huge mass penalty compared to a simple capsule.

Edited January 20, 2016 by Nibb31

[artwhaley]

Yes, the crewed variant would have used their larger OMS engines for a pad abort, and probably would have had a similar set of abort options as the space shuttle...  Abort to Launch for the first minute or two, Abort to Europe for a while after that, And then Abort Once Around and Abort to Orbit, after CCB sep.  

Here's a cool article on the solution they'd come up with for the Dream Chaser's predecessor, the HL-20!  http://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1330/what-kind-of-launch-escape-system-les-does-dream-chaser-have 

[batman78781]

I see. Thanks for the info!