Flight Opportunities - Febspot

Flight Opportunities

A collection of 2 posts

NASA C-PICA heat shield enables Varda capsule to reenter atmosphere — Nasa.gov

NASA C-PICA heat shield enables Varda capsule to reenter atmosphere

Using C-PICA material licensed from NASA, a protective heat shield manufactured in-house by Varda Space Industries enabled one of its capsules to blaze through Earth’s atmosphere on Thursday, the agency says. Varda’s W-5 capsule launched to low Earth orbit on Nov. 28, 2025. C-PICA (Conformal Phenolic Impregnated Carbon

NASA balloon tests advance wildfire detection, smoke tracking and firefighter communications — Nasa.gov

NASA balloon tests advance wildfire detection, smoke tracking and firefighter communications

NASA’s Flight Opportunities program has supported a series of high-altitude balloon tests of technologies aimed at improving wildland fire detection, predicting smoke movement, and extending communications to firefighters in remote terrain. On April 23, 2025, a researcher team from Harvard University, Xiomas Technologies and NASA’s Ames Research Center