A 146kg (320lb) inflatable re-entry and descent technology (IRDT) demonstrator, built by Russia's NPO Lavochkin's Babakin Space Centre, was launched on a sub-orbital flight on 12 July.
The Babakin/European Space Agency/Astrium mission was flown aboard an RSM-50 Volna missile from a Ryazan nuclear submarine.
The second demonstration flight of the IRDT featured an 800mm (31.5in)-diameter sphere which was to have inflated, forming two thermal shields 2.3m and 3.8m in diameter. The mission was reported to be successful, although no recovery had been made by 18 July.
The dual-craft IRDT concept was developed initially for an ill-fated 1996 Mars mission. It was first launched in 2000 aboard a Starsem Soyuz-Fregat booster, after which one of the inflated thermal shields was recovered and found not to have inflated fully, damaging the 110kg spacecraft on landing. The larger unit was never found.
Astrium has exclusive rights for IRDT development after forming a joint venture with Babakin, called Rescue Space Systems, last year.
Meanwhile, the Planetary Society-Cosmos Studios Cosmos 1 project has deployed a new folded, rather than rolled, solar sail blade, in flight configuration in a vacuum chamber at NPO Lavochin, paving the way for a mission this year.
Source: Flight International
