Hours after its successful engineering flight, the first test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator project is lifted aboard the recovery vessel Kahana. During the June 28, 2014, flight, the saucer-shaped test vehicle climbed to over 180,000 feet (about 55,000 meters) in altitude and went as fast as four times the speed of sound.

NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate funds the LDSD mission, a cooperative effort led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. NASA's Technology Demonstration Mission program manages LDSD at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia, coordinated support with the Pacific Missile Range Facility and provided the balloon systems for the LDSD test.

For more information about the LDSD space technology demonstration mission: http://go.usa.gov/kzZQz.