The Atmospheric Entry Simulator at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.
<p>Visible in the foreground is a large tank containing air under high pressure. In the middle ground directly behind it is a special trumpet-shaped nozzle, contoured so that air flowing through it gradually changes in density in the same way that the Earth's atmosphere changes in density with altitude. 
</p><p>Not visible in this photograph is a high speed gun used to launch a test model at earth re-entry speed (17,000 mph) upstream through a special nozzle while air is flowing through it. Technicians are adjusting the spark shadowgraph station required to make accurate picture and time recording of the model in flight.
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When a gun-launched model flies at full re-entry velocity into the simulator nozzle, it experiences the decelerations, stresses, pressures and temperatures of actual re-entry during a few thousandths of a second. The simulator can quickly and economically determine in the laboratory whether a specific design can survive atmospheric re-entry.
NASA
1959-01-01
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