National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration

Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an

Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID)

The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable

Decelerator (LOFTID), dedicated to the memory

of Bernard Kutter, program manager, is a

partnership between NASA’s Space Technology

Mission Directorate and United Launch Alliance

(ULA) to demonstrate an inflatable aerodynamic

decelerator, or aeroshell, technology that could

one day help land humans on Mars.

Since NASA’s inception in 1958, the agency has

relied heavily on rigid aeroshells (a protective

shell composed of a heat shield and a back

shell), parachutes, and retro-propulsion (rockets)

to decelerate people, vehicles, and hardware

during orbital entry, descent, and landing

operations. The LOFTID demonstration is poised

to revolutionize the way NASA and industry

deliver payloads to planetary destinations with

atmospheres.

A New Kind of Heat Shield

After more than a decade of development of

Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator

(HIAD) technology, including two suborbital

flight tests, the LOFTID orbital flight test is the

next step. This return from orbit demonstration

provides an entry environment relevant to many

potential applications, paving the way for its use

on future missions. The LOFTID re-entry vehicle,

at 19.7 feet (6 meters) diameter, will be the

largest blunt body aeroshell to ever go through

atmospheric entry.

When a spacecraft enters an atmosphere,

aerodynamic forces, like drag, act upon it,

slowing it down and converting its kinetic energy

into heat. Using atmospheric drag typically is

the most mass-efficient method to slow down

a spacecraft. Since HIAD technology is larger

than traditional aeroshells, it creates more drag

and starts the deceleration process in the upper

reaches of the atmosphere, allowing not only

heavier payloads, but also landing at higher

altitudes. It could additionally be used to bring an

unprecedented amount of mass back from low

Earth orbit, including items from the International

Space Station. Another significant potential

benefit is enabling the recovery of rocket assets

for reuse which can reduce the overall cost of

access to space.

The HIAD design consists of an inflatable

structure that maintains its shape against the drag 

forces, and a protective flexible thermal protection 

system that withstands the heat of reentry. The 

inflatable structure is constructed with a stack 

of pressurized concentric rings, or tori, that are 

strapped together to form an exceptionally strong 

blunt cone-shaped structure.

www.nasa.gov
The tori are made from braided synthetic fibers

that are 15 times stronger than steel. The flexible

structure and insulates it from the searing heat of

atmospheric entry; it can withstand temperatures

in excess of 2900°F (1600°C). It’s constructed

with three layers: an exterior ceramic fiber cloth

layer to maintain integrity of the surface, a middle

layer of insulators to inhibit heat transmission,

and an interior layer that prevents hot gas from

reaching the inflatable structure. The flexible

thermal protection system is also foldable,

packable, deployable, and tailorable. Because it

is flexible, it takes up less room in the rocket and

allows the design to be scalable.

Mission Design

LOFTID is a secondary payload launching on

a ULA Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg Space

Force Base. After delivery of the primary

payload, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration’s Joint Polar Satellite System-2

satellite, LOFTID is released and reenters Earth’s

atmosphere and decelerates from hypersonic,

more than 25 times faster than the speed of 

sound, down to subsonic flight, less than 609 

miles per hour. Throughout the flight, a realtime beacon periodically transmits limited data 

while sensors and cameras acquire a more 

comprehensive data set that is stored on an 

internal data recorder and an ejectable data 

recorder that is jettisoned and recovered after 

reentry. LOFTID will deploy a parachute to allow 

a soft splash down and will be retrieved from the 

Pacific Ocean with support from ULA and the 

Hawaii Resource Group.

The LOFTID project is sponsored by the Technology Demonstration 

Missions program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission 

Directorate in partnership with ULA. LOFTID is managed by NASA’s 

Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, with contributions 

from NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, 

NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and 

NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California.

NP-2022-06-050-LaRC