This is the sexy new mini-Shuttle that’s hoping to be the world’s latest and greatest space plane to take humans into the final frontier.

We so often focus on Space-X, NASA and Virgin Galactic, that we forget there are other organisations with space ambitions.

So today I want to draw your attention to the Dream Chaser program of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, which is etching ever closer to becoming the next company to fly into orbit and onto the International Space Station (ISS).

The company has been testing this private space plane, which looks a bit like a mini space shuttle.

They have just announced their rocket booster partner, which will be the United Launch Alliance or ULA.

ULA’s Vulcan Centaur rocket is set for it’s first test launch in 2021; the same year in which Dream Chaser is meant to start honoring it’s NASA contract to deliver cargo to the ISS.

CEO and Founder Fatih Ozmen explains what makes them unique is that they have the best of both worlds:

NASA is working on bringing all it’s space demands and goals back to American companies, which it has been funding extensively to revolutionise future space flights.

In the meantime, it uses a combination of Space-X, Cygnus spacecraft, Russia’s Progress spacecraft and Japan’s HTV cargo ships.

Here is a video of the Dream Chaser’s history, goals and hopes for competing in an ever-growing space flight industry: