2-860-744 - Heritage Space/Heritage Images

LDSD retrieval, June 28, 2014. NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) is lifted aboard the Kahana recovery vessel. The LDSD launch tested technologies for landing large payloads on Mars. During the engineering flight, the saucer-shaped first "flown" 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 funded the LDSD mission, a cooperative effort led by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.