NASA recently released incredible footage of its so called flying saucer test.

NASA recently released incredible footage of its so called flying saucer test. Here's NASA's Ian Clark describing the test.

NASA 's website explains why this technology is important - The heavier planetary landers of tomorrow will require much larger drag devices
 than any now in use to slow them down -- and those next-generation drag devices will need to be deployed at higher supersonic speeds to safely land vehicle, crew and cargo.