Irve3 Space Brakes To Be Tested At Wallops

Final preparations are underway for the launch of the INFLATABLE RE-ENTRY VEHICLE EXPERIMENT (IRVE3) later this nothern summer. It will be launched aboard a sounding rocket and the materials that make up the inflated heat shield will be put to the test on re-entry. The experiment may lead to advanced INTERPLANETARY "SPACE BRAKES." NASA launched an inflatable heat shield experimental spacecraft on 17 August 2009 with the successful first test flight of the INFLATABLE RE-ENTRY VEHICLE EXPERIMENT (IRVE2). The heatshield had been vacuum-packed into a 15-inch diameter payload shroud and launched on a Black Brant 9 sounding rocket from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. Nitrogen inflated the 10-foot (3 m) diameter heat shield, made of several layers of silicone-coated [Kevlar] fabric, to a mushroom shape in space several minutes after liftoff. The rocket apogee was at an altitude of 131 miles (211 km) where it began its descent to supersonic speed. Less than a minute later the shield was released from its cover to inflate at an altitude of 124 miles. The inflation of the shield took less than 90 seconds.Mary Beth Wusk and AMANDA CUTRIGHT describe the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) and Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE 3) projects at the NASA Langley Research Center's up on Nov. 8, 2011.

Source: truth-just-ahead.blogspot.com