Your spacecraft is falling from the skies at an initial speed of Mach 25. Your reentry heat shield, that has to survive a 7,800 degrees Celsius (14,072° F) plasma shock, is a finely tuned hi-tech ...
NASA's LOFTID technology demonstration will inflate a heat shield six meters across and then deploy it from a Centaur upper stage for a reentry test. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — A payload hitching a ...
A NASA flight test designed to demonstrate the feasibility of inflatable spacecraft technology is coming down to the wire. The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) is the third in a series ...
LITTLETON, CO. – The common saying that “space is hard” may need redefinition, given the increasing use of softgoods to fashion inflatable structures from airlocks to habitats for future lunar and ...