Talk:Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator

Latest comment: 9 months ago by 94.198.176.112 in topic First orbital test of an inflatable heatshield?

To add, ULA

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Could mention it was a joint mission with ULA. ULA helped design or specify the LOFTID device & mission, due to plans to use the tech on their Vulcan launchers ('SMART' recovery of engines). Mission was dedicated to a ULA engineer who had led the ULA effort. - Rod57 (talk) 08:57, 12 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

ULA-news mentions it, but NASA news videos and secondary sources cover it as well, eg. [1]. - Rod57 (talk) 10:50, 12 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

Photos?

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Can someone cap the NASA broadcast for actual photography of the deployed LOFTID? -- 65.92.246.191 (talk) 09:34, 13 November 2022 (UTC)Reply

This short YT video shows the in-space inflation / deployment and even IR footage of the reeentry and landing, plus the apparently intact recovery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mM1JIPY4Mw Etomcat (talk) 22:50, 25 December 2022 (UTC)Reply

Antlers missing?

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I think this article could add a link to Project MOOSE, the inflatable personal re-entry backpack evisioned by NASA in the mid-1960s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOOSE It seems tech advances have made true spacejumping from orbit a reality by 2022, be it for astronaut rescue or the next excessively extreme sport after jet-equipped wingsuits. Etomcat (talk) 22:56, 25 December 2022 (UTC)Reply

First orbital test of an inflatable heatshield?

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As cited on https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_entry Russia successfully tested this technology on February 8th 2000 with the IRDT vehicle.

I propose that the article be amended to reflect differences between these two tests, or to remove the assertion that LOFTID was the first mission to complete atmospheric entry using an inflatable device. 94.198.176.112 (talk) 01:14, 6 March 2024 (UTC)Reply