SoylentNews

2016 is shaping up to be a great year for Dream Chaser, the slick reusable spaceplane currently being developed by Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC).

For starters, NASA just awarded the company with a commercial contract to ferry cargo—and eventually astronauts—to and from the International Space Station. SNC will now be stacked up against SpaceX and Orbital ATK in NASA’s delegation of ISS resupply missions to the private sector.

However, it turns out that NASA is not the only organization that has been crushing on Dream Chaser. The European Space Agency (ESA) has also been eyeing this compact spaceplane. In the wake of the new NASA contract, ESA has also committed to contributing 33 million Euros (or $36 million) towards chasing the Dream Chaser dream.