NASA successfully tested an inflatable heat shield prototype Monday (July 23), a technology that could one day be used for future space exploration missions, including landing humans on Mars, its ...

A large inflatable heat shield developed by NASA’s Space Technology Program has successfully survived a trip through Earth’s atmosphere while travelling at hypersonic speeds up to 7,600 mph. The ...

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. — NASA managers are rescheduling the launch of an inflatable heat shield technology demonstration flight from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va., until no ...

HOT AIR: This weekend NASA will test a large, inflatable heat shield aboard a suborbital rocket launched from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle ...

NASA's open-ended technology-development program has logged its first major flight test, sending an inflatable heat shield through a suborbital parabola that subjected it to 1,000F temperatures as it ...