It designed and built components for the hybrid rocket motors for Paul Allen's Tier One suborbital SpaceShipOne space program operated by Scaled Composites.

The role of SpaceDev will be melded into another of Sierra Nevada's subsidiary companies, MicroSat, to create a more complete space technology unit.

[4] In August 1998 SpaceDev acquired all patents, intellectual property, test results, and documents that had been produced by the out of business American Rocket Company (AMROC).

The SEC alleged that the company made false and misleading statements over the Internet and via other media in violation of U.S. securities laws in an attempt to increase its stock value.

[citation needed] As it turned out however, the company's first success would come a little closer to home, in the form of CHIPSat [1], the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer microsatellite.

This was followed one year later by supplying the rocket motors that propelled SpaceShipOne into the history books by creating the world's first civilian astronauts and helping Paul Allen win the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

On November 16, 2005, SpaceDev announced [8] its Dream Chaser concept for a four-passenger sub-orbital and a six-passenger orbital vehicle, both based on NASA's HL-20 "Personnel Launch System" or "Space Taxi".

On May 5, 2006, SpaceDev announced it was selected as a finalist in NASA's $500 million Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) demonstration program.

On August 3, 2012, NASA announced new agreements with the Sierra Nevada Corporation and two other companies to design and develop the next generation of U.S. human spaceflight capabilities, enabling a launch of astronauts from U.S. soil in the next five years.

As part of this agreement, Sierra Nevada Corporation was awarded $212.5 million, ostensibly to continue development and testing of its Dream Chaser spacecraft.

[citation needed] The Streaker was a family of rockets conceptualized by SpaceDev with the goal of a low-cost, low complexity launch vehicle.