Public domain
Arc Furnace Mercury Capsule
From the collection of NASA Image and Video Library. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
A hot jet research facility, used extensively in the design and development of the reentry heat shield on the Project Mercury spacecraft. The electrically-heated arc jet simulates the friction heating encountered by a space vehicle as it returns to the earth's atmosphere at high velocities. The arc jet was located in Langley's Structures Research Laboratory. It was capable of heating the air stream to about 9,000 degrees F.
NASA Image and Video Library’s own descriptionCredit lineArc Furnace Mercury Capsule. NASA/LARC, 1959-08-20. Public domain. ID: LRC-1959-B701_P-05705.
