The Dream Chaser, designed by Sierra Nevada Corporation in partnership with Lockheed Martin, is the only winged craft in the running.
Sierra Nevada Corporation is live in the Mojave Desert with a preliminary test flight of its new spaceship, the Dream Chaser.
The Dream Chaser is designed to fly without a pilot, reach orbit some 250 miles above Earth, and help resupply the International Space Station for NASA. It's also been floated as a possible method to further service the Hubble Space Telescope.
The spacecraft is about 30 feet long and is about one-tenth the weight of NASA's now-retired 100-ton space shuttle. It's a"sassy, greener, leaner sister to the space shuttle," Kimberly Schwandt, a spokesperson for Sierra Nevada Corporation, said during a Facebook Live broadcast.
The Dream Chaser will not be launched or fly on its own on Wednesday, however. Instead, it will be tethered to a large helicopter by wires and logging hooks, then lifted up and lapped around the airfield.
Steve Lindsey, a former NASA astronaut and the Sierra Nevada Corporation's vice president of space exploration systems, said the goal is to get the ship up to realistic air speed to get data for a more complete drop-test. In that future test, the Dream Chaser will be dropped from the helicopter and attempt to land on a runway.
You can watch the test live below, and a reply once it's complete.
Lindsey said the only way the Dream Chaser would fly on its own in this initial test is if a problem occurs and the helicopter has to release the spaceship as a safety precaution.
SNC Facebook Live Captive Carry FlightPosted by Sierra Nevada Corporation on Wednesday, August 30, 2017