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>> Michael Curie: We are here
at NASA's Kennedy Space Center

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in Florida, joined today
by Cheryl McPhillips.

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Cheryl is NASA's Crew
Program Partner Manager

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for the Sierra Nevada
Corporation.

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Welcome.

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Thank you.

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>> Michael Curie: As part

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of the Commercial Crew Program
Integrated Capability or CCiCap,

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NASA recently awarded
212.5 million dollars

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to Sierra Nevada Corporation

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to keep things rolling
and moving ahead.

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Can you tell us a little
bit more about that?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Well,
there was a competition

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and Sierra Nevada was one of
the three that was selected

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and so they're planning

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to further develop their
Dream Chaser system,

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which is a lifting
body which kind

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of makes it have a little
more pizzazz maybe then some

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of the other vehicles.

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It also has some green
technology propellants

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that are new that haven't been
used before by NASA before

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in any human spacecraft.

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So, we're pretty
excited about it.

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>> Michael Curie:
Yea, it is exciting

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and you are based
here at the Kennedy.

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Right.

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>> Michael Curie:
And that is the home

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of the Commercial Crew Program.

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What were you doing prior

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to joining the Commercial
Crew Program?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Prior

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to joining Commercial Crew
I was working on Orion,

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the manned spacecraft that's
going to do the exploration

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and also worked space
station before that.

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And ions ago when I started
here I worked the space lab.

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>> Michael Curie: So,
now in your new role

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as the partner manager
for Sierra Nevada,

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what roles do you have?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Well,
basically I'm the liaison

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between NASA and Sierra Nevada,

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so I'm kind of the
communication conduit

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if you will between the two.

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I try to make sure that
Sierra Nevada is successful

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and that anything that NASA has
that they need I try to advocate

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for them to get it and also
then I try to communicate back

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to NASA exactly what
Sierra Nevada is doing,

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where their issues are,
where their successes are

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and how they're progressing.

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>> Michael Curie: So, this
is some award of the CCiCap?

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Did you hold come
kick-off meetings?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Yea,

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just last week we had our
first kick-off meeting

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out in Louisville, Colorado.

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So, we discussed
their whole plan to go

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from where they are
today on their design

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to crude orbital flight.

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>> Michael Curie: Yea,
one of the new aspects

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that NASA has undertaken in this
whole Commercial Crew Program is

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the Space Act Agreement.

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And can you tell us a little
bit more about how that works

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for you for NASA
and for the company.

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Well,

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the Space Act Agreements
are for public purpose.

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Basically its two parties coming
together for a mutual goal:

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NASA's goal is to promote a
commercial space transportation

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system and Sierra Nevada's
goal is again they want to have

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to their Dream Chaser to fly
astronauts or even tourists

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or even doing other types
of research in space.

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So, we come together,
NASA with some money,

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the Sierra Nevada Corporation
with a design and hardware

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and further it towards
the mutual goal

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of flying humans in space.

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>> Michael Curie: So, you in
role as the partner manager,

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you're sort of advocate for
the company and for NASA.

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You're somewhat embedded
in Sierra Nevada?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Correct.

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I have a person out Val
Enthorn out in Louisville,

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that's my resident office.

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But I am traveling a
lot out to Louisville

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to be with Sierra Nevada.

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>> Michael Curie: With the
Space Act Agreement in place,

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Sierra Nevada and the other
companies have a series

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of milestones that
they must meet in order

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to make the monetary milestone
gains that they're looking for.

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Can you tell us how
that's all laid out

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and set up for Sierra Nevada.

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: For
Sierra we had nine milestones.

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We had our first one last week.

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Then we have two safety review
milestones that will be coming

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up and an integrated system
baseline review which kind

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of says this-- this is where
the system is right now.

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It's past the preliminary design
review phase that we refer to.

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So, we're going to
get a baseline review

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and say this is how the
hardware is and then they'll go

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from there towards their
critical design review,

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which is usually considered
like 90 percent complete.

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Other major milestones
they have,

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they have their engineering test
article, which they're going

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to drop from a helicopter.

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I don't know if you saw
pictures of it during CCdev 2;

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the flew below a helicopter.

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Anyhow they're going to
drop that in November

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and do some test landings.

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So, that's a full size mock-up.

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>> Michael Curie:
You mentioned CCdev2,

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Sierra Nevada has been
a partner with NASA

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through that element as well.

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So, they're not brand
new because--

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>> Cheryl McPhillips:
They're a continuum.

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>> Michael Curie: Is there kind
of like a comfort level growing

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between the company and NASA?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Yes,

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I think we learned a lot
during the CCdev 2 phase.

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You know sometimes we
had different definitions

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that were called out
in the milestones.

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The milestones have entrance
and exit criteria that they have

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to meet in order to get
paid for that milestone

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and there were cases where
we thought the milestones,

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the entrance and exit criteria
stood for different things.

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So, we've redefined those
and we're now trying to talk

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up front before the milestone
and clear any expectations

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up before the milestone.

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>> Michael Curie: Well,
there's a lot of excitement

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that is growing between NASA
and all these companies.

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This is a real exciting time
with the commercial partners.

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Can you sense the excitement
from your role with NASA?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Well,
I'm very excited to be working

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with Sierra Nevada
and to be back

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around some hardware you know,
since the shuttle retired.

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It's been a little depressing
around here, so it's good

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to be back with some
hardware that's being built

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and the view of the company.

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And last week when I was out
there I was talking to one

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of the engineers for Sierra
Nevada, and very excited

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about his actuator
that is the hinge

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that connects their body
flap to their space plane.

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And it was like he was
talking about his child.

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He was just so excited.

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>> Michael Curie: Well
they are a unique company

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in this commercial crew program

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and that they have
the lifting body,

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the HL-20 lifting body
that-- it's based on NASA's--

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>> Cheryl McPhillips:
It is based on it.

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>> HL-20 and it's also somewhat
reminiscent then of the shuttle

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and the fact that it lands.

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>> Cheryl McPhillips:
I don't think they

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like to be called the,
"Little Shuttle", so.

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>> Michael Curie: No.

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No, but how does that, you know
how does that make you feel

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since you have been
around flight hardware

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and shuttle hardware
for so many years?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Well it--

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I love to be around
the hardware.

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You know if I'm having a
hard day I used to always go

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down into the space
station in the SSPF and walk

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around the hardware just
to kind of lift my spirits.

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So, it's good to be able to be

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around some flight
hardware again.

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>> Michael Curie: Well, when
you're out and you're talking

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to your friends and family,
how do you describe your job?

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>> Cheryl McPhillips: Well,
I describe my job as working

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on the next space plane
to take NASA astronauts

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to the International
Space Station.

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>> Michael Curie: Great.

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Cheryl, thank you very, very
much for being here today.