NASA AND UNITED LAUNCH Alliance are kicking off what they hope will be a series of orbital flight tests to scale up the size of heat-resistant aero-shells that inflate to provide safe, low-cost and efficient transportation through planetary atmospheres-including Earth's-at hypersonic speeds. The technology is designed to address the challenge of landing heavier payloads using hardware that, when deflated, fits inside a launch vehicle payload fairing. "A rigid structure is limited," says NASA Technology Demonstrations Director Trudy Kortes, with NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Ultimately, this technology can enable new missions to Mars, Venus and even Saturn's large moon Titan, and it can be used for payload returns to Earth as well." United Launch Alliance (ULA) is developing a so-called Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decel-erator (HIAD) for future recovery of its Vulcan rocket's core-stage engines so that they can be reused.
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