The Paresev (Paraglider Research Vehicle) was an test vehicle based upon the kite-parachute studies by NACA Langley engineer Francis M. Rogallo. In contrast to an ocean landing with parachutes the "Rogallo wing" appeared to be an alternate means of returning a spacecraft to Earth. The Rogallo wing would allow the spacecraft to glide back to the earth and land at normal air fields. In May 1961 NASA decided to study this recovery method more and awarded a contract for a test vehicle to be built. The Rogallo wing (invented by and named for Francis Rogallo) is a simple, inexpensive flying wing with remarkable properties. ...
Paresev 1-A with tow plane
However this alternate to spacecraft recovery was deemed too unreliable and never used. A related wing was used in the developement of the X-38 a technology demonstrator for the proposed Crew Return Vehicle. An interesting side note is that the first man to walk on the moon Neil Armstrong also test flew the paresev. The X-38 was a program under leadership of NASA Johnson Space Center to build a series of incremental flight demonstrators for the proposed Crew Return Vehicle (CRV) for the International Space Station. ... Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5, 1930) is a former American astronaut, test pilot, naval aviator. ...
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