3, 2, 1... Liftoff! ⁣ ⁣ At 4:49 a.m. ET (0949 UTC) from vandenberg_sfb, the final ULALaunch Atlas V rocket to launch from the West Coast lifted off carrying two very different missions to Earth orbit.⁣ ⁣ First to deploy was NOAA’s Joint Polar System Satellite 2. JPSS-2 is the third to join the latest series of satellites. JPSS-2 will pass over every single spot in our planet at least twice a day as it collects valuable data that helps feed daily weather models, forecast extreme weather, and monitor climate change.⁣ ⁣ We took the ride up, to test tech on the ride down. Our Low-orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID), successfully inflated and deployed a cross-cutting aeroshell —a type of heat shield —for atmospheric re-entry. For destinations with an atmosphere, delivering heavy payloads, such as experiments, equipment, and people, can be challenging because current rigid aeroshells are constrained by a rocket’s nosecone size. An inflatable aeroshell can be deployed to a...