Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Dream Chaser spacecraft is being prepared for its first test flights as part of NASA’s commercial space program, and it’s a design that wouldn’t look out of place on a poster stuck to a 10-year-old’s wall.

The Dream Chaser is one of three vehicles competing for NASA contracts to replace the space shuttle orbiters for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station and elsewhere in low Earth orbit. Unlike its capsule competitors from Boeing and SpaceX, the Dream Chaser is a flying, lifting body design that could land on a runway, much closer in concept to the orbiters that were retired in 2011.

Sierra Nevada announced that it will be partnering with veteran space vehicle maker and aerospace juggernaut Lockheed Martin to build the second Dream Chaser vehicle. The two companies will also collaborate on ongoing parts of NASA’s commercial crew program, which is currently in the Certification Products Contract phase. Sierra Nevada, SpaceX and Boeing are developing versions of their space vehicles that will meet NASA certification for safety and performance.

“The SNC team is thrilled that Lockheed Martin will be joining our expanding world-class team of partner organizations,” said Mark Sirangelo, head of Sierra Nevada’s space system group.

Lockheed Martin will build the next Dream Chaser at the facility in Michaud, Louisiana where the external tanks for the space shuttles were made. The company is no stranger to the current commercial space programs as it builds the Atlas V rocket (in a joint venture with Boeing) to be used by the Dream Chaser as well as Boeing’s CST-100 spacecraft.

Sierra Nevada says the first Dream Chaser spacecraft is currently bring prepared for transport at the company’s facility in Colorado. In the next few weeks SNC expects to transport the vehicle to Edwards Air Force Base in California’s Mojave Desert where flight testing will take place.

The Dream Chaser will be dropped from a helicopter at 12,000 feet and and is expected to reach speeds of around 300 knots (345 mph) before landing at a touchdown speed of around 180 knots (207 mph). For the initial test flights, the Dream Chaser will glide to the ground autonomously without a pilot. The glide flights are scheduled to begin within the next two months and Sierra Nevada says the flight test vehicle will make just a few flights to gather the data necessary to further refine the flight characteristics of the design.

The second Dream Chaser – built by Lockheed Martin – will be the vehicle used for sub-orbital flight testing that the company hopes will begin in the next two years. NASA is expected announce at least two companies to fly astronauts to low earth orbit by 2017.

The race to replace the space shuttle continues as Boeing is wrapping up wind tunnel testing on its crew transportation vehicle. The aerospace giant is building the CST-100, a capsule that will be launched atop an Atlas V rocket with room for up to seven astronauts. Boeing is one of several private companies vying for NASA contracts to transport cargo and passengers to the International Space Station as well as other future missions for the space agency and private companies.

Boeing has been testing a model of the CST-100 at the NASA Ames Research Center in California since the middle of September. The 12 inch diameter aluminum wind tunnel model is about 1/14 scale and is heavily instrumented to provide detailed data for engineers during the high speed wind tunnel testing.

The model is being positioned in several different attitudes to simulate the aerodynamics that could be experienced during an aborted landing according to Boeing. The engineers want to ensure the design is structurally sound and the vehicle can be controlled during various phases of flight.

The real CST-100 capsule is expected to be tested with the Atlas V rocket beginning in 2015.

Boeing is one of several companies chosen by NASA for the commercial crew development program. Space Exploration continues work on its Dragon capsule which is expected to perform an unmanned docking with the ISS early next year. Blue Origin which recently suffered a setback when a launch ended with the loss of a spacecraft in an explosion, and Sierra Nevada Corporation are the other companies working on the CCDev program.

More photos after the jump.

The 12×14 inch aluminum wind tunnel model of Boeing’s CST-100.

Model of CST-100 mounted inside the wind tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Boeing’s CST-100 space vehicle.

Images: Boeing