The shuttle-like Sierra Space Dream Chaser has been tested on NASA’s high-power vibration rig that simulates conditions during launch and reentry, officials said Thursday ahead of its planned first flight to the ISS later this year.

Tenacity, the first spaceplane in the planned series, was completed at the company’s Louisville, Colorado, factory in November and then shipped to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Sandusky, Ohio.

There, he was exposed to the Mechanical Vibration Facility, the world’s most powerful spacecraft shaking system, according to NASA. It will then be placed in a massive vacuum chamber on the ground, where it will experience the extreme cold and high temperature of space, as well as the low pressure of the environment.

“We’re very excited to begin orbital operations for NASA this year. This is the year we change the way we connect Earth and space,” Sierra Space CEO Tom Wies told reporters at a press event where he will introduce the spacecraft at launch. Configuration with Shooting Star cargo module”.

Dream Chaser bears a striking resemblance to NASA’s iconic spacecraft, the Space Shuttle, which was decommissioned in 2011. But it is much smaller, flies autonomously, has an updated propulsion system based on burning hydrogen peroxide, and is designed to be reused up to 15 times.

Sierra Space, formerly Sierra Nevada Corporation, won a contract in 2016 to fly resupply missions to NASA’s International Space Station. The first flight will deliver the cargo to the orbital complex at an unspecified date this year, attached to the top of United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket, which made its own maiden flight in January.

Unlike SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, a rubber blob-shaped capsule that lands in the ocean with parachutes, Dream Chaser could theoretically land on a runway anywhere in the world; this is a feature marketed as a selling point to customers who purchase the service. Future versions will be designed to carry crew.

NASA’s goal is to create a private economy in low-Earth orbit, allowing the space agency to focus on more ambitious missions to the Moon and Mars that lack commercial incentives. Sierra Space’s other efforts include building a commercial space station called Orbital Reef.