The first (and smallest) torus for the 10-meter aeroshell NASA is developing with ULA, sitting on top of the six-meter LOFTID aeroshell that completed its mission in November 2022. Credit: NASA Space ...

An inflatable spacecraft heat shield the technology could help NASA land astronauts and massive cargo loads on the Red Planet in the late 2030s. Credit: NASA/Greg Swanson To gently land a rocket ship ...

NASA successfully tested an inflatable heat shield prototype Monday (July 23), a technology that could one day be used for future space exploration missions, including landing humans on Mars, its ...

For example, an inflatable heat shield would not add as much to the initial launch mass, and they could be used to safely land components like ULA's Vulcan rocket engines for reuse. The LOFTID ...

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — NASA managers are rescheduling the launch of an inflatable heat shield technology demonstration flight from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., until no ...

See NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) in this flight test animation. it will be "demonstrating a cross-cutting aeroshell -- a type of heat shield -- for ...