LOFTID Spacecraft Uncrating

NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) arrives for processing inside Building 836 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. LOFTID is a rideshare launching with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) satellite. Teams working at Astrotech will prepare LOFTID to mate it with JPSS-2. After that a team will stack the encapsulated spacecraft and re-entry vehicle on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket. The technology demonstration mission is slated to test new capabilities for landing payloads, including in a thinner atmosphere like that on Mars. NASA is targeting launch for Tuesday, Nov. 1, from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-3.

NASA’s Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) arrives for processing inside Building 836 at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Monday, Aug. 15, 2022. LOFTID is a rideshare launching with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Joint Polar Satellite System-2 (JPSS-2) satellite. Teams working at Astrotech will prepare LOFTID to mate it with JPSS-2. After that a team will stack the encapsulated spacecraft and re-entry vehicle on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket. The technology demonstration mission is slated to test new capabilities for landing payloads, including in a thinner atmosphere like that on Mars. NASA is targeting launch for Tuesday, Nov. 1, from Vandenberg’s Space Launch Complex-3.

Album ULA_JPSS-2
Atlas VJPSS-2Joint Polar Satellite System-2LOFTIDLaunch Services ProgramLow-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable DeceleratorNOAAUnited Launch AllianceVandenberg Space Force Base