NASA replaced the necessary supplies for the space station after a commercial rocket blew up seconds after lift off.
There was a cascading effect of that explosion. The future of human-led Mars exploration hung in the balance: Without that rocket, NASA's Langley Research Center no longer had a ride for testing its $93 million inflatable heat shield in space
He said that they were shut down.
A person outside of the U.S. space agency was paying attention. The experiment was offered a solution by Bernard Kutter. The Low- Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator is scheduled to launch on a ULA Atlas V rocket at 2:25 a.m. The time is on November 1st. NASA will be able to use the flight to perform a crucial demonstration for the Martian landing hardware, even though it's not the only reason for this launch.
The only thing that happened was when he approached us after the explosion. This can be used by us. Can you show us that it works? Del Corso spoke. We agreed to do it.
NASA will test its $93 million inflatable heat shield project, hardware that could help land astronauts on Mars in the 2030s. Credit: NASA / Greg Swanson
He died before he could see through the mission. His family didn't know why his heart stopped. He was older than 50.
The NASA inflatable heat shield test that will soon travel around Earth over the North and South poles will also fly some of Kutter's cremated remains, fulfilling a lifelong dream. The capsule holding his ashes has Latin words written on it.
Kutter's ashes will be among the few that have traveled in space. The ashes of the man who was credited with discovering it a century ago were used in the first voyage to Pluto.
"'If we give you a ride, can you show it works?'"
Charles Chafer, CEO of Celestis, a private company that has conducted 18 space memorials, said that if the cost of spaceflight continues to fall, then space memorials could become more common. The late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is one of about 1,500 people who have received these services from Celestis.
The main reason the mission is flying is because the ashes hitch rides on rockets. The average flight was 1.5 years. There will be five flights in the next 14 months. Chafer attributes the increase in demand to easier access to space and the steady growth of cremation as a burial alternative.
People who fall into at least one of the three groups are usually served by the company.
People will never see as much cheering and high-fiving at a funeral as they do at our services, according to Chafer.
"What I tell people is you'll never see as much cheering and high-fiving at a funeral as you do at our services."
Bernard Kutter, former chief technologist for United Launch Alliance, is credited with saving NASA's inflatable heat shield project by offering the experiment a rideshare on a rocket. Credit: United Launch Alliance
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A suborbital flight that would bring the ashes back to surviving family members costs $2,500 and a flight into Earth's orbit costs $5,000. The company's website says a mission into deep space would cost $12,500.
The way sailors scatter ashes at sea is not something that Celestis wants to do.
Chafer said that they are space-sustainability freaks and that they don't want to introduce more debris in space. It can do a lot of damage if you start releasing stuff in the middle of the night.
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She will attend her first rocket launch because of NASA and ULA's tribute to her dad. She and her family members have never been to a rocket show. A group of people, including her husband, brother, mother, uncle, and grandmother, will be in California for the event to see off the mission named after Kutter.
The first Apollo moon landing was broadcasted on television when her father was a child. He asked her if she'd been there before. She said she had. He had his mind set from that point on.
He wanted to take his mom to space.
The inflatable heat shield is composed of a stack of inner-tube-like rings strapped together. Its synthetic material is 15 times stronger than steel and able to withstand temperatures over 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit. Credit: NASA / Greg Swanson
New ways to make space travel more affordable was the focus of his work before he died. He was aware that the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator, or HIAD project, was being worked on by NASA.
Engineers have used the same heat shield to land on Mars since the first uncrewed Viking mission. The heat shields on NASA's Curiosity and Perseverance rovers are limited in size by the rocket's nose cone, so they use a hard shell.
The bigger the heat shield, the more drag it can pull out of the Martian atmosphere to land larger loads of cargo. ULA's goals of bringing back heavy cargo from low-Earth orbit and saving some of its most expensive hardware could be helped by that same technology.
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Kutter knew that an inflatable heat shield could allow the company to reuse rockets. The inflatable heat shield was going to be on the new engines the company was using.
He rarely talked about the future cislunar economy with his family as he pondered how to lead the company. He was more focused at home on how to support his kids.
He was present with us all the time. He did not bring that to us when he was at ULA.
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