A Space Plane owned by a private company is slated to take its first test flight in the next 6-8 weeks. The plane will hopefully make roundtrip space missions making it easier for astronauts to get into space. The Dream Chaser spacecraft, built by Sierra Nevada Corp, is hoping to be the first aircraft to make that trip.
The Dream Chaser will be released from a helicopter at about 12,000 feet, and then fly back and land on a runway at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in California. The unmanned drop test will be the first of many trials including trips to low-Earth orbit and back, in hopes of paving the way for contracted trips carrying crews to the International Space Station for NASA. The ship looks like a miniature space shuttle, at 29.5 feet long and a wingspan of 22.9 feet.
