Successful test for NASA's inflatable heat shield

The Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE-3) was launched by sounding rocket at 0701 Monday from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia.

According to NASA, the purpose of the IRVE-3 test was to show that a space capsule can use an inflatable outer shell to slow and protect itself as it enters an atmosphere at hypersonic speed during planetary entry and descent, or as it returns to Earth with cargo from the International Space Station.

In a statement, James Reuther, deputy director of NASA’s Space Technology Program, said: ‘It’s great to see the initial results indicate we had a successful test of the hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator.

‘This demonstration flight goes a long way toward showing the value of these technologies to serve as atmospheric entry heat shields for future space.’

IRVE-3, a cone of uninflated rings covered by a thermal blanket of layers of heat-resistant materials, launched from a three-stage Black Brant rocket for its suborbital flight. About six minutes into the flight the 680lb inflatable aeroshell, or heat shield, and its payload separated from the launch vehicle’s 22in-diameter nose cone about 280 miles over the Atlantic Ocean.