NASA is inviting media to see a technology that could one day help land humans on Mars after it is inflated for the final time on Earth before its spaceflight demonstration later this year. The event will take place beginning 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 15, at NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.
The Bernard Kutter Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) is scheduled to launch with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations JPSS-2 polar-orbiting satellite from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California on Nov. 1. After hitching a ride to space aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket, LOFTID will inflate and then descend back to Earth from low-Earth orbit to demonstrate how the inflatable heat shield can slow down a spacecraft to survive re-entry.
Engineers at Langley are completing work to ensure LOFTID is flight-ready before it is shipped to NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for final acceptance testing, then to Vandenberg for launch.
NASA and ULA experts will provide a briefing on LOFTID and NASAs Moon to Mars technologies, followed by interview availability and the opportunity to see several additional laboratories developing technologies that will enable NASAs return to the Moon and future Mars exploration.
Participants include:
- Jim Reuter, associate administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), NASA Headquarters
- Trudy Kortes, director of technology demonstrations for STMD, NASA Headquarters
- Joe Del Corso, LOFTID project manager, NASA Langley
- John Reed, ULA chief rocket scientist
