Scientists at Rice University have succeeded in making energy-saving window coatings from boron nitride at room temperature.

Our participants’ capsules will orbit the Earth and return via the Mission Possible capsule, creating a spectacular liftoff and recovery experience.” Those were the words of Celestis co-founder and ...

While he worked on the V-2 rocket alongside other Nazi engineers, he is probably best known as the mind behind ablative heat shields.

European startup Atmos achieved a milestone with Phoenix 1's successful orbital test flight, showcasing innovative space logistics and inflatable heat shield technology.

Sweating Heat Shields Could Be the Future Of Reusable Spacecraft 3D-printed material can off-gas a coolant, which acts as a barrier against heat buildup during descent and atmospheric re-entry.

And then there are ablative heat shields, which are the ones that we're looking at. Ablative heat shields have a material in them that form gases as they heat up and those gases push back out.

During re-entry, gases built up inside the heat shield's Avcoat, an ablative outer material coating. The gases had nowhere to vent and created pressure that caused cracking on the surface.

The Artemis I heat shield was heavily instrumented for flight with pressure sensors, strain gauges, and thermocouples at varying ablative material depths.

They saw cracks in the craft's heat shield and divots in the ablative thermal protection layer resembling potholes on a neglected street.

NASA is delaying its Artemis II and Artemis III missions to 2026 and 2027 respectively due to issues with the Orion capsule's heat shield.

The lower part of the nozzle, made from phenolic-impregnated linen, did pretty well too, building up a pyrolyzed layer that acted much like a space capsule’s ablative heat shield would.

Von Braun helped develop the ablative heat shield, which dissipates the searing heat of reentry by flaking off in harmless fiery pieces.