Want to see a spaceship land at an airport? A Colorado company aims to make that happen.
Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems on Thursday unveiled its Preferred Landing Site Program — an ambitious plan to work with airports and spaceports to become designated landing sites for the company’s Dream Chaser spacecraft.
The Dream Chaser is a commercial space vehicle that launches on a rocket and lands on runways, much its big-brother look-alike, the Space Shuttle.
“Dream Chaser is poised to lead the commercial space industry in reusable, low-Earth orbital flight,” said SNSS chief Mark Sirangelo in a statement. “With each Preferred Landing Site designation comes a greater opportunity to make commercial space an accessible reality.”
A runway measuring at least 10,000 feet long is necessary to land a Dream Chaser.
All six runways at Denver International Airport meet this requirement. Five are 12,000 feet long, and one is 16,000 feet long, according to the airport.
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337, lkeeney@denverpost.com or
