The New Space Shuttle, "Dream Chaser"
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1389913937.jpg

Dream Chaser - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

That's frigging awesome. I didn't know it was so far along in it's development. And how cool that used a Skycrane to launch it for it's first flight. '60's technology still earning it's keep. Kinda like our air cooled 911's :)

Somehow I was totally unaware of this. Thanks for posting.

As a commercial venture they are hoping to win a NASA contract to supply the space station (along with a couple of others vying for the opportunity). I really hope they win it, the other competitors return to earth via ocean splash-down.

See post #21029, about seven months old but some good links and photos.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/391522-random-transportation-pictures-1052.html#post7485116

They have been trying to get the lifting body design through NASA for almost 50 years.

Sierra Nevada Corp is teamed with Lockheed Martin for the latest round of proposal submittals to NASA. There is a 3-way competition for the NASA "commercial crew" business between the SNC/Dreamchaser, and the blunt-nosed capsule approaches from Boeing and Space X.

The build/test/delivery proposals are due to NASA in early 2014, so we should know by mid-summer who NASA has selected to fly crew to Space Station. If the selected team can hold their schedule, NASA anticipates crewed flight capability to 'Sation' by 2nd half of 2016.