GODSPEED: Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser performs critical glide test flight.

Roughly one-quarter the length of a space shuttle orbiter, the Dream Chaser was to be released from a heavy-duty carrier helicopter at an altitude of around 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) for the approach and landing test, Sierra Nevada officials previously said.

The spacecraft was carried aloft under the helicopter connected with a 200-foot (60-meter) lift line, then positioned for the drop. The Dream Chaser’s on-board guidance computer was expected to maneuver the ship with its aerosurfaces, then line up with the runway for a steep final approach.

Two main landing gear wheels and and a nose skid deployed from the bottom the spaceplane just before touchdown.

Sierra Nevada is developing the Dream Chaser in partnership with NASA to carry cargo and experiments to the space station. It will launch on top of a rocket and land on a runway, returning equipment and experiment specimens to the ground for quick handover to engineers and scientists.

This is more like the 21st Century I was hoping for.