...with a successful captive carry of a full scale Dream Chaser Flight Vehicle near the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in Colorado. This test marks the completion of the 12th Program Milestone for NASA's Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev) Program and the 16th overall for SNC under NASA Commercial Crew Development Program. The Dream Chaser Flight Vehicle was carried aloft on May 29th, 2012, and successfully met all the pre-established flight test goals. This was the first full scale flight test of the Dream Chaser Flight Vehicle, which will continue to conduct flight tests in preparation for an autonomous Approach and Landing Test (ALT) scheduled for later this summer at the Edwards Air Force Base and in conjunction with the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center.

The Dream Chaser Space System is being developed as part of NASA’s venture into commercially provided crew transport. Captive carrying testing provides SNC an early opportunity to evaluate and prove hardware, facilities and ground operations in preparation for Approach and Landing tests scheduling for later this year.