Dream Chaser spacecraft

The company that gets the biggest chunk of the $50 million is Centennial, Colo.-based Sierra Nevada Corp., which won $20 million to continue development of its space transportation system.

That system includes the piloted, seven-person Dream Chaser spacecraft, which will eventually be launched on an Atlas V 402 vehicle, according to NASA. The Dream Chaser, a project of Sierra Nevada's SpaceDev subsidiary, is based on NASA's HL-20 lifting-body design.