A little more than a year ago, a NASA flight test article came screaming back from space at more than 18,000 mph, reaching temperatures of nearly 2,700°F before gently splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. At that moment, it became the largest blunt body—a type of reentry vehicle that creates a heat-deflecting shockwave—ever to reenter Earth's atmosphere.

The Low-Earth Orbit Flight Test of an Inflatable Decelerator (LOFTID) launched on Nov. 10, 2022, aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket and successfully demonstrated an inflatable heat shield. Also known as a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) aeroshell, this technology could allow larger spacecraft to safely descend through the atmospheres of celestial bodies like Mars, Venus, and even Saturn's moon, Titan.

On 17 November 2023, ESA's Juice spacecraft carried out one of the largest and most important maneuvers in its eight-year journey to Jupiter.

Using its main engine, Juice changed its orbit around the sun to put itself on the correct trajectory for next summer's Earth–moon double gravity assist—the first of its kind.

The maneuver lasted 43 minutes and burned almost 10% of the spacecraft's entire fuel reserve. It's the first part of a two-part maneuver that could mark the final time that Juice's main engine is used until its arrival in the Jupiter system in 2031.