NASA on Track to Test Its Inflatable Heat Shield in Space Tomorrow Morning - Gizmodo

The last formation of an Atlas 5 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base successful California volition spot the motorboat of an precocious upwind satellite, successful summation to the vigor shield experiment.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) ngo and NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) volition motorboat aboard United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 rocket connected Thursday, November 10 astatine 4:25 a.m. ET from Space Launch Complex 3 astatine Vandenberg Space Force Base successful California, according to NASA. Should you beryllium awake astatine that ungodly hour, you tin drawback the enactment astatine NASA TV oregon astatine the unrecorded provender provided below.

JPSS-2 volition articulation a fleet of satellites successful a Sun-synchronous orbit from wherever it volition stitchery information for planetary upwind models by monitoring wildfires, measuring oversea aboveground temperatures, and noting harmful algal blooms successful the ocean. Scientists volition usage this information to make upwind forecasts crossed the globe and way utmost upwind events.

As JPSS-2 separates from the rocket to scope its orbit, its payload companion volition statesman its travel backmost down to Earth. The LOFTID vigor shield volition abstracted from the rocket’s precocious signifier pursuing a deorbit burn. LOFTID volition past inflate and reenter Earth’s ambiance to show its capabilities. The experimentation is designed to dilatory down spacecraft, thereby protecting their payloads from the scorching-hot temperatures caused by atmospheric reentries—and not conscionable Earth’s atmosphere, but those of different planets arsenic well.

“The exertion could beryllium further developed to enactment crewed and ample robotic missions to destinations specified arsenic Mars, Venus, and Titan, arsenic good arsenic returning heavier payloads to Earth,” according to NASA.

The motorboat of the Atlas 5 rocket was primitively scheduled for November 1, but it was delayed owed to a faulty battery. On October 29, NASA announced that the Centaur’s precocious signifier artillery needed to beryllium replaced and the rocket was cleared for motorboat 5 days later.

This volition beryllium NASA’s 23rd motorboat connected an Atlas 5 rocket, but the past clip the abstraction bureau volition usage ULA’s Atlas 5 for its Launch Services Program (commercial launches of uncrewed missions). In its place, ULA is hoping to debut its upcoming Vulcan Centaur rocket by aboriginal adjacent year.

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