After several test delays, NASA successfully launched and recovered Saturday a flying saucer sent to the Earth's stratosphere to test prototype landing technologies that may be useful for future martian missions. Despite its chute failing to fully deploy, NASA declared the Low Density Supersonic Decelerator's maiden flight a success.

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According to the space agency, the saucer-shaped spacecraft ascended to 120,000 feet over the Pacific from the US Navy's facility in Kauai, Hawaii, dangling from a helium balloon the size of a football stadium.

The spacecraft then detached from its balloon, igniting the rocket attached to the saucer to propel it to a supersonic ascent of180,000 feet before deploying its breaking system. The vehicle splashed back down in the Pacific Ocean after the giant parachute designed to slow its fall failed to fully unfurl.

The thin atmosphere in the red planet makes landing delicate equipments very challenging. LDSD systems are being developed to slow Martian entry without relying on massive amounts of rocket propellants or heavy atmospheric shields.

"We want to test them here where it's cheaper before we send it to Mars to make sure that it's going to work there," said Mark Adler, project manager of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA still relies on a 40-year old technology first used in landing the Viking spacecraft in Mars. The $150 million experimental test flight would allow scientists to deliver increased payload and eventually astronauts to Mars.

Principal investigator Ian Clark of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory earlier said that "We've been using the same parachutes for several decades now. If we want to eventually land a human on the surface of Mars, we realized we need to develop new technologies."

The LDSD project tested two new technologies on Saturday. The Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator designed to increase the drag on the vehicle during descent and the Supersonic Disk Sail Parachute, the enormous balloon made of high-tech film as thin as a sandwich wrap.

Worldwide viewers connected to the internet followed the experimental flight in real time thanks to the low resolution footage sent back by cameras on board the disc-shaped vehicle.  

TagsNASA, Flying saucer, martian mission, disc-shaped spacecraft