Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser Completes Captive Carry Test

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser completed an important step toward orbital flight with a successful captive carry test at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California.

A helicopter successfully carried a Dream Chaser test article, which has the same specifications as a flight-ready spacecraft, to the same altitude and flight conditions of an upcoming free flight test.

The Dream Chaser is a lifting-body, winged spacecraft that will fly back to Earth in a manner similar to NASA’s space shuttles. The successful captive carry test clears the way for a free flight test of the spacecraft later this year in which the uncrewed Dream Chaser will be released to glide on its own and land.

Photo credit: NASA Larger image