ATLANTIC, Va. (AP) — NASA is preparing to launch a rocket to test a new inflatable heat shield technology this week from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
The launch is scheduled for Saturday morning with backup launch days through July 24. The rocket will be visible to residents in the southern Chesapeake Bay region.
NASA researchers are developing a new kind of lightweight inflatable spacecraft outer shell to slow and protect vehicles as they travel through the atmosphere at hypersonic speeds.
Officials say the technology was developed at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton will be flown on a suborbital flight test ride. About 20 minutes after the launch, a test article is expected to splash down in the Atlantic Ocean about 100 miles east of Cape Hatteras, N.C.
