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"  What you&amp;#039;re seeing in the picture is called &amp;quot;captive-carry,&amp;quot; and yes, it is a series of cables holding a plane aloft. This no-flight flight has a purpose, though. It&amp;#039;s one of the last steps before Sierra Nevada&amp;#039;s long-awaited Dream Chaser spacecraft takes to the skies on its own. During a two-hour test performed yesterday at Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., a helicopter carried the Dream Chaser up to a maximum altitude of 12,400 feet, according to Sierra Nevada. Although the craft was not providing its own thrust, engineers turned on the space plane&amp;#039;s flight computer, guidance control, and other electronic systems. They deployed the landing gear and nose skid, too. All performed according to plan, paving the way for Dream Chaser to make real test flights in the autumn. We&amp;#039;re excited to see Sierra Nevada take flight, because the company represents something different in private spaceflight. SpaceX, the most celebrated and successful company of this new private space era, plans to send humans to the International Space Station and beyond inside Dragon, a space capsule that looks something like what Apollo astronauts rode in. The Dream Chaser is a lifting body. It has wings to provide lift, and would be able to land on a runway like the space shuttle did. In fact, the Dream Chaser design dates back to a NASA experimental concept called the HL-20. Sierra Nevada is working with NASA on the Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) and Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap), programs in which NASA doled out funds to a few private firms attempting to build ships that could carry American astronauts into orbit, a pressing concern with the retirement of the shuttles and NASA&amp;#039;s subsequent reliance on Russia. In its news release, Sierra Nevada says it plans to complete all of the dozen program requirements by summer 2014, beginning with the first free-flight tests this fall. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/a9307/the-dream-chaser-is-getting-dangerously-close-to-actually-flying-15841329/>