WATCH your head if you’re out for a stroll next week: two experimental
spacecraft are due to return to Earth using no parachutes. The
shuttlecock-shaped ships, which will rely solely on air resistance to slow their
descent, will put an inflatable heat shield through its paces for the first
time.
Part of an experiment run by the European Space Agency, Daimler Chrysler
Aerospace (Dasa) and NPO Lavotchkin, a Russian company that makes tough
inflatable materials, the craft is due to be launched from Kazakhstan on 9
February.
The idea is to cut the cost of transporting cargoes into orbit by…
