Sierra Nevada has tapped United Launch Alliance to carry the company's Dream Chaser cargo space plane into orbit in 2020. "ULA is an important player in the market and we appreciate their history and continued contributions to space flights and are pleased to support the aerospace community in Colorado and Alabama," said Sierra Nevada's Mark Sirangelo.

Sierra Nevada has announced it is buying ORBITEC, a Madison, Wis.-based provider of space propulsion, energy and life support systems and a supplier to Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser spacecraft. "ORBITEC's impressive performance as our partner on the Dream Chaser program for [environmental closed-loop life support systems] demonstrates their strong capability to deliver human spaceflight qualified hardware," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president of Sierra Nevada Space Systems. ORBITEC, whose purchase price wasn't disclosed, will continue to operate in Madison.

The Dream Chaser space taxi is set for a 2016 unmanned test flight, a key milestone toward maker Sierra Nevada's goal of becoming a space plane for NASA astronauts. "We expect to have a fleet of these vehicles, much like the shuttle with different purposes," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of Sierra Nevada's Space Systems.

Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Dream Chaser spacecraft has completed a preliminary design review, a milestone in the company's effort to win a role ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station. "The vehicle is now going to be outfitted for everything that we need to do to do the autonomous drop tests, which are scheduled for third quarter of this year," said Mark Sirangelo, corporate vice president and head of space systems at Sierra Nevada.

Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser will begin testing in Huntsville, Ala. The company will perform wind-tunnel tests on the spacecraft at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "We are extremely pleased to be adding the Marshall Space Flight Center to our Dream Chaser orbital spacecraft team," said Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems.