NASA To Test Heat Shield At Spaceport America Written 10 September 2018

The AP reported that NASA plans to test new technology designed to “protect spacecraft from heat and pressure when entering a planet’s atmosphere.” NASA announced Friday that the heat shield will be installed aboard a rocket to be launched Wednesday by UP Aerospace from New Mexico’s Spaceport America. Once the rocket “reaches space, the umbrella-like shield will deploy.” The shield, built by built by NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, is made from “woven carbon fabric and supported by semi-rigid ribs.” As part of the launch, NASA “also will be testing other technology for launch vehicles and measuring the internal environment of suborbital vehicles that are carrying experiments.” NASA hopes that the new technology will allow spacecraft larger than the Curiosity rover to land on other planets within the solar system.
More Info (Associated Press)