NASA adds commercial mini-shuttle to space station supply fleet

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA hired a third company to fly cargo to the International Space Station, adding an innovative space plane built by Sierra Nevada Corp to the fleet, the U.S. space agency said on Thursday.

Privately owned Sierra Nevada will join incumbents Space Exploration Technologies and Orbital ATK in ferrying supplies to the space station beginning in late 2019.

Terms of the contracts were not immediately disclosed, but NASA previously said it intended to spend about $1 billion to $1.4 billion on the program annually. Each contract includes up to six cargo flights to the space station, a $100 billion research laboratory that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser is designed to blast off on top of a conventional rocket, then land itself horizontally on a runway like an airplane.

(Reporting By Irene Klotz- Editing by Phil Berlowitz)