WASHINGTON: NASA will conduct an ambitious test flight of its revolutionary ‘flying saucer’ technology Tuesday as scientists lay the foundations for future Mars missions.
The high altitude test at the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, will use a huge balloon to carry the 15-foot wide, 7,000-pound test flying saucer to high altitude. The balloon, roughly the size of three football fields, will lift the flying saucer to 120,000 feet, at which point the vehicle will be released. A booster rocket will then transport the saucer at Mach 4, four times the speed of sound, to a height of 180,000 feet.
After reaching a height of 180,000 feet, a doughnut-shaped airbag will inflate around the saucer for its descent to earth. “That airbag helps it slow down by adding more area and drag,” Steve Jurczyk, NASA space technology mission directorate associate administrator told FoxNews.com. “Then we deploy a supersonic parachute about 100 feet in diameter.”
Slowed down by the airbag and parachute, the saucer is expected to splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii about 2 hours and 15 minutes after launch.
Launch is expected to be between 1:30 p.m. ET and 3 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to NASA.
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