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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...