Washington, July 25 (ANI): A large inflatable heat shield developed by NASA's Space Technology Program has successfully completed a trip through Earth's atmosphere while travelling at hypersonic speeds up to 7,600 mph.
The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) was launched by sounding rocket at 7:01 a.m. Monday from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va.
The purpose of the IRVE-3 test was to show that a space capsule could use an inflatable outer shell to slow and protect itself as it enters an atmosphere at hypersonic speed during planetary entry and descent, or as it returns to Earth with cargo from the International Space Station.
"It's great to see the initial results indicate we had a successful test of the hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator," said James Reuther, deputy director of NASA's Space Technology Program.
"This demonstration flight goes a long way toward showing the value of these technologies to serve as atmospheric entry heat shields for future space," he noted.
IRVE-3, a cone of uninflated high-tech rings covered by a thermal blanket of layers of heat resistant materials, was launched from a three-stage Black Brant rocket for its suborbital flight. About 6 minutes into the flight, as planned, the 680-pound inflatable aeroshell, or heat shield, and its payload separated from the launch vehicle's 22-inch-diameter nose cone about 280 miles over the Atlantic Ocean.
After its flight, IRVE-3 fell into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of North Carolina. From launch to splashdown, the flight lasted about 20 minutes.
"A team of NASA engineers and technicians spent the last three years preparing for the IRVE-3 flight. We are pushing the boundaries with this flight. We look forward to future test launches of even bigger inflatable aeroshells," said Lesa Roe, director of NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.
This test was a follow-on to the successful IRVE-2, which showed an inflatable heat shield could survive intact after coming through Earth's atmosphere.
IRVE-3 was the same size as IRVE-2, but had a heavier payload and was subjected to a much higher re-entry heat, more like what a heat shield might encounter in space.
IRVE-3 is part of the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) Project within the Game Changing Development Program, part of NASA's Space Technology Program. Langley developed and manages the IRVE-3 and HIAD programs. (ANI)
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