Grant says NASA had planned a Mars-focused supersonic retropropulsion test program, but SpaceX tried it on a mission first and proved it works, accelerating perceived readiness for Mars entry, descent, and landing.
Actually, nobody knew if supersonic retropropulsion was possible.
NASA had a whole program set up to start testing it, specifically for Mars environments.
Anyway, SpaceX just went ahead and tried it on a mission, it worked, the rest is history.
This finding is one of many signals tracked across Space. The live feed updates every few hours with new authority voices, debates, and emerging ideas.
← Back to Space