Awarded a $1.25MM Phase II SBIR for a mid-air deployment system for high-altitude balloons

High-Altitude Balloons (HABs) are great tools for transiting the stratosphere for long distances or carrying sensors to image the ground or provide communications relays.\r\n\r\nThey are slow to deploy and for distances over thousands of miles, take a long time to transit. In many cases, this isn't a problem. However, there are disaster and defense scenarios where eyes in the sky are needed nearly immediately. The Rocket Cargo program out of Air Force Research Lab is studying the use of rockets to transport cargo across the world in under an hour. They have awarded In Orbit a contract to develop a special decelerator that will deploy mid-air and allow a high-altitude balloon to rapidly inflate and stabilize, getting to its station in 1/10th of the time.