WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: ‘Dream Chaser’ Space Plane Hitches a Ride with a Helicopter.

At 30 feet long, it looks like a Matchbox car crossed with a stingray. But it has outsize ambitions. Its maker, Sierra Nevada Corporation, calls it a “space utility vehicle,” marketing it as a crew and cargo transport to low Earth orbit. After delivery, the idea goes, it will fly down to the kind of runways that line big-city airports. That could make it a uniquely accessible piece of space infrastructure—for NASA, other nations, or even companies that want to try their hands at spaceflight.

During today’s “captive carry” test, Sierra Nevada aimed to see whether its SUV rides as expected at the altitudes where it will later free-fly. But it’s not ready to go that high on its own, so the Chinook lifted it there, flying it around in loops like a parent keeping a hand on the back of a kid’s bike seat.

The Dream Chaser’s basic design came from Russia—or, to be more precise, from spying on Russia.

You’ll want to read the whole thing.