Editing Atmospheric entry (section)

===NASA IRVE ===
[[File:Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment.jpg|thumb|right|NASA engineers check IRVE.]]
NASA launched an inflatable heat shield experimental spacecraft on 17 August 2009 with the successful first test flight of the Inflatable Re-entry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE). The heat shield had been [[vacuum packing|vacuum-packed]] into a {{convert|15|in|adj=mid|cm|-diameter}} payload shroud and launched on a [[Black Brant (rocket)|Black Brant 9]] [[sounding rocket]] from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia. "Nitrogen inflated the {{convert|10|ft|m|adj=mid|-diameter}} heat shield, made of several layers of [[silicone]]-coated <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Kevlar]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> fabric, to a mushroom shape in space several minutes after liftoff."<ref name=nasa20090817/> The rocket apogee was at an altitude of {{convert|131|mi}} where it began its descent to supersonic speed. Less than a minute later the shield was released from its cover to inflate at an altitude of {{convert|124|mi}}. The inflation of the shield took less than 90 seconds.<ref name=nasa20090817>[http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/irve.html NASA Launches New Technology: An Inflatable Heat Shield] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219090403/http://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/irve.html |date=December 19, 2010 }}, [[NASA]] Mission News, 2009-08-17, accessed 2011-01-02.</ref>