As the SpaceX Dragon prepares to depart the International Space Station, Sierra Nevada sends a full-scale Dream Chaser up in the air for the first time.

Several big developments have taken place in the fledgling commercial space industry this past week, with big news from both SpaceX and Sierra Nevada Corporation, the builders of the Dream Chaser reusable winged vehicle.

SpaceX sells their first heavy lifter

SpaceX announced yesterday that it had signed its first launch contract for the Falcon Heavy, a vehicle that's still under development. The company plans to test the new heavy-lift rocket later this year.

The Falcon Heavy is essentially three Falcon 9 rockets ganged together to create the most powerful production rocket since the Saturn V. The launcher's secret is that it cross-feeds fuel and oxidizer from the two side boosters to the center rocket as they ascend. When the two side boosters separate, the center rocket, now basically a single Falcon 9, continues with a full load of fuel and oxidizer.

Falcon Heavy is rated for 53 metric tons of payload to Low Earth Orbit. The advertised price for a Falcon Heavy brings its cost below $1000 per pound, a milestone that has taken on aspects of the holy grail within the launch industry. SpaceX has already planned for all three lower stages of the Falcon Heavy to be reusable, which would reduce the price even further.

The new contract is with Intelsat, the world's largest satellite company, and represents a major victory for the young launch provider. Intelsat began as a consortium of 11 countries in 1964, cooperating to build a satellite communications network in geosynchronous orbit. The consortium grew to over 100 countries over the next forty years, and was finally privatized in 2001, keeping the name Intelsat as its corporate title.

Neither company has announced which satellite will travel aboard a Falcon Heavy; although Intelsat has several candidates in its pipeline. Intelsat likes to split backup satellites between different launch providers; it remains to be seen whether SpaceX's markedly lower prices will affect Intelsat's launch calculus.

Dragon packed and ready to go home early

NASA TV will begin coverage tonight at 2:30 AM Eastern Time of the departure of the SpaceX Dragon from the International Space Station. Although the Dragon spacecraft was originally slated for an 18-day first mission, the unpacking and repacking process has gone more quickly than expected. Dragon is now ready to begin its swift journey home. The reusable capsule is due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean Thursday morning not very far from the coast of California. From there Dragon will be brought back to the SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, where it will be cleaned up and given a new disposable heat shield for its next re-entry. The "trunk", Dragon's unpressurized section, will separate from the spacecraft and burn up in the upper atmosphere.

According to a NASA press brief, Dragon is bringing home a toolbox, fluid modules, stowage trays, cables, a keyboard and data recordings from experiments conducted aboard the Station. Other returns include parts from various experiments and cartridges from investigations done on metal rods in the Material Science Research Rack. NASA has not stated where all the dirty laundry, a serious matter aboard a space station, will go.

Dragon's return capability is key not only for cargo but for humans. Not counting this demonstration flight, two cargo Dragons will fly in each of 2012, 2013 and 2014, giving SpaceX at least seven cargo Dragon flights and twenty Falcon 9 flights before 2015. SpaceX's President, Gwynne Shotwell, stated in the pre-launch press conference that the company hopes to have manned Dragons launching by early that year.

Dream Chaser takes its first test flight

Sierra Nevada Corporation's air tests of its Dream Chaser crew vehicle would normally have received top billing this week had they not been slightly overshadowed by all the (admittedly historic) Dragon hoopla. According to an article at Parabolic Arc (with great video), residents of Jefferson County near Denver were treated to the sight of a Sikorsky Sky Crane flying the Dream Chaser test hardware above the Broomfield airport on Tuesday. The tests were being done in anticipation of Dream Chaser's Free Flight Tests later this year.

SNC announced yesterday that Dream Chaser had completed four more of its CCDev2 (Commercial Crew Development Round 2) milestones. The four milestones included testing of the Separation System that releases Dream Chaser from its Atlas V booster, Main Landing Gear Drop Testing, Captive Carry Interface Testing, and the captive carry flight test readiness review, the carrying aircraft in this case being the sky crane. Evidently after the Captive Carry FTRR Sierra Nevada didn't waste any time getting the bird into the air. Dream Chaser will soon complete its 18 milestones for this round of NASA's Commercial Crew competition. The last test is an optional Milestone 19, a free flight from a carrier aircraft.

The reusable Dream Chaser has the unique ability to return injured astronauts at low accelerations back from a space station. The spacecraft is a reincarnation of NASA's HL-20 crew vehicle, repackaged with SNC's hybrid rocket system and modernized electronics. Dream Chaser has blown through its milestones fairly quickly, garnering fans not only for its safety and reusability, but also for its mini-Shuttle-like appearance.