Ballute

The ballute (a portmanteau of balloon and parachute) is a parachute-like braking device optimized for use at high altitudes and supersonic velocities.

The innovation soon caught the attention of other organisations, including NASA; the agency incorporated ballutes into the escape system of the Gemini spacecraft.

[2] In terms of its basic configuration, it is a cone-shaped balloon, featuring a toroidal burble fence (an inflated structure intended to ensure flow separation) that is fitted around its widest point.

[3][9] They can generate a relatively high amount of drag for their mass, making them attractive in weight-constrained scenarios typical to aerospace applications.

[3] One of its earliest uses in the sector was as an element of the astronaut's launch escape equipment aboard NASA's Gemini spacecraft;[11] it was also being used to slow down the descent of the Arcas, an early American rocketsondes, by the mid-1960s.

[2] Furthermore, extended designs using inflatable tension cone ballute technology have been proposed for deorbiting NanoSats and recovering low-mass (< 1.5 kg or 3.3 lb) satellites from low Earth orbit.

[18][19] In February 2015, the Danish nonprofit aerospace organisation Copenhagen Suborbitals were engaged in testing a ballute for its Nexø rockets.