On May 31, Sierra Space successfully powered up its spaceplane, Dream Chaser, in its assembly facility. The test is another step forward for the company that is planning to ship the vehicle to the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio for a thermal vacuum test before moving it to Cape Canaveral for launch preparations.

In a recent statement, the company's president, Janet Kavandi, said that Dream Chaser would be moved to the test facility this July and added it "should be ready to go by the end of this year."

However, the timeline for the launch does not depend solely on the vehicle’s readiness but also on the manifest of missions going to the International Space Station (ISS).

In preparation for Dream Chaser’s launch, known as the 2nd Vulcan Mission, astronauts Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA and Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA trained on the vehicle's systems, which should be used to transport cargo to and from the ISS.

However, Sierra Space is planning to expand Dream Chaser’s application to include crewed missions and is currently selecting a professional astronaut corps of 12 to 15 people for future human flights.

This news comes only a few days after the successful return of the Crew Dragon spacecraft, the 2nd Axiom private astronaut mission AX-2, that splashed in the Gulf of Mexico at 11:05 pm (ET) May 30. As we previously discussed here, the AX-2 mission highlights, once again, the commercial aerospace industry’s ability to execute and operate successful space missions to the ISS.

In a recent celebratory Tweet, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk noted, "38 astronauts to orbit so far!" marking the company's success safely launching and returning astronauts since its first launch three years ago.

Sierra Space is joining the club of a handful of leading entities offering innovative services to better the industry and make human space travel safer, cheaper, and easier. It is hard to think of a more exciting time for the aerospace industry and especially for human space flights than today.

The dream of being an astronaut is becoming more and more feasible.

“This is a milestone that points to the future and is a key moment in a long journey for Dream Chaser,” said Tom Vice, chief executive of Sierra Space, in a statement about the test.