Script From Fox News
NASA launched a "flying
saucer" on the weekend that will enable the U.S. space agency to test
technologies that one day will be key in transporting humans to Mars, and the
initial flight of the disk-shaped craft was a dubbed a success when it landed
in the expected spot in the Pacific Ocean.
The Low-Density Supersonic
Decelerator, or LDSD - better known, even at NASA, as the "flying
saucer" - was carried aloft into the upper reaches of the atmosphere
attached to a gigantic balloon on Saturday morning from the Hawaiian island of
Kauai.
Despite the fact that the craft's
parachute did not fully deploy upon the conclusion of the mission, NASA was
able to recover the saucer at the planned time on Saturday afternoon when the
disk detached from the balloon and landed in the ocean.
The $150 million mission was
aimed at creating an alternative to the technologies developed decades ago that
the U.S. space agency continues to use for its Mars exploration missions with
the objective of one day sending humans to the Red Planet.
The helium-filled balloon lifted
the LDSD to about 36,000 meters (118,000 feet, or more than 22 miles) above the
earth, where it then detached from the saucer just as an attached rocket
ignited, carrying the craft up to 54,000 meters (177,000 feet, or about 34
miles) at four times the speed of sound.
The flight allowed NASA experts
to test the vehicle's performance in an atmosphere similar to that of Mars. The
Red Planet's atmosphere is very thin, similar to that found at the altitude of
54,000 meters (34 miles) above the earth's surface.
Once it had completed its ascent,
the disk deployed a specially-designed parachute to slow its descent back to
Earth, and three hours later it landed in the Pacific Ocean.
NASA is planning to conduct more
saucer flights soon to continue testing the craft's capabilities, but it
declared the maiden flight a success.
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