PDS logoPlanetary Data System
PDS Information
Find a Node - Use these links to navigate to any of the 8 publicly accessible PDS Nodes.

This bar indicates that you are within the PDS enterprise which includes 6 science discipline nodes and 2 support nodes which are overseen by the Project Management Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). Each node is led by an expert in the subject discipline, supported by an advisory group of other practitioners of that discipline, and subject to selection and approval under a regular NASA Research Announcement.
Click here to return to the Photojournal Home Page Click here to view a list of Photojournal Image Galleries Photojournal_inner_header
Latest Images  |  Spacecraft & Technology  |  Animations  |  Space Images App  |  Feedback  |  Photojournal Search  

PIA18011: Before the Drop: Engineers Ready Supersonic Decelerator
 Mission:  LDSD
 Product Size:  2448 x 3264 pixels (w x h)
 Produced By:  JPL
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA18011.tif (23.98 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA18011.jpg (625.3 kB)

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

A saucer-shaped vehicle designed to test interplanetary landing devices hangs on a tower in preparation for launch at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. The saucer, which is part of NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project, will test two devices for landing heavy payloads on Mars: an inflatable tube and an enormous parachute.

The launch tower helps link the vehicle to a balloon; once the balloon floats up, the vehicle is released from the tower and the balloon carries it to high altitudes. The vehicle's rocket takes it to even higher altitudes, to the top of the stratosphere, where the supersonic test begins.

NASA has six potential dates for launch of the high-altitude balloon carrying the LDSD experiment: June 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 14. The launch window for each date extends from 7 to 8:30 a.m. HST (10 to 11:30 a.m. PDT and 1 to 2:30 p.m. EDT).

This image was taken during the vehicle's Integrated System Test, an operations rehearsal that engaged all of the teams and systems required for launch and flight, and ran through activities that will be conducted before and during launch, ascent, powered drop and flight.

The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator Project is managed by JPL for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate in Washington.

Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2014-05-21