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<\/p>\nWhen the International Space Station needed an airtight membrane, NASA turned to Aerostar Tillamook.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only been one air barrier ever certified by NASA to go to space,\u201d said Aerostar business manager Kevin Tucker. \u201cAnd we made it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Oregonians and others think about Tillamook, they generally picture cows or the Tillamook Creamery. Tucker said Oregonians generally aren\u2019t aware there\u2019s an aerospace company in their midst.<\/p>\n
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A prototype aerial robotic balloon, or aerobot, is readied for a sunrise test flight at Black Rock Desert, Nevada, in July 2022.<\/p>\n
NASA\/JPL-Caltech<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018Oh you guys are doing secret stuff!\u2019 Like no. It\u2019s just different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s expertise lies in putting together soft pieces of high-tech fabric, meaning Aerostar employs a lot of highly trained structural engineers and sewing professionals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe know-how that we have is how to take pieces, put them together, with very uniform loads and stresses, so that when they\u2019re under pressure, there\u2019s no failure points,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThey don\u2019t pop.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of Aerostar\u2019s main products is high-altitude balloons. Space agencies use them to carry payloads up to 23 miles high, outside 99.99% of Earth\u2019s atmosphere, to test them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just about like being in space, except gravity is still there,\u201d Tucker said.<\/p>\n
For example, Aerostar tested a parachute designed to land a spacecraft on Mars. The company took it up 120,000 feet, where the atmospheric density is similar to Mars, and dropped it. The parachute worked, but it was never used.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t gone to Mars because, if you look at the timing of that mission, European Space Agency was partnered with Roscosmos<\/a>, the Russian space agency,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThings kind of dissolved right about there.\u201d<\/p>\n The war in Ukraine largely ended the partnership, and the Mars mission was terminated.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, lifting and dropping large pieces of machinery can be tricky, which is one of the reasons Aerostar is based in Tillamook. The area has relatively uncrowded airspace.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019re no commercial routes. There\u2019s military traffic and some general [traffic.] But in terms of where you watch the crisscrosses of aircraft during the day. Straight above us right now, there\u2019s nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n Aeostar Tillamook business manager, Kevin Tucker, inside the traffic control tower at Tillamook Airport. \u201cThe know-how that we have is how to take pieces, put them together, with very uniform loads and stresses, so that when they’re under pressure, there’s no failure points,\u201d Tucker said. Aug. 4, 2025<\/p>\n Kristian Foden-Vencil \/ OPB<\/p>\n Inside Aerostar\u2019s large factory near the Tillamook Airport, there are two tables, each over 300 feet long. That\u2019s where sheets of plastic are put together to make a balloon, said engineering supervisor Ryan Tabb. <\/p>\n \u201cThose are all heat-sealed together. Multiple sealing technologies here,\u201d said Tabb. \u201cThere are overhead gantries to ride along sealers that ride along the table with the operator driving it.\u201d<\/p>\n Aerostar balloons have tested all kinds of space equipment. For example, before the Ingenuity helicopter<\/a> flew on Mars in 2021, Aerostar tested a glider. There are no runways on Mars, so the glider needed to be released from the spacecraft as it was falling.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you pack it? How do you deploy it? At what altitude?\u201d Those were the questions Tucker said Aerospace Tillamook needed to answer. \u201cPutting it into flight conditions, when you\u2019re in an aeroshell moving at supersonic speeds, is complex.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, NASA opted to fly the Ingenuity helicopter instead and it proved to be a resounding success. Aerostar is now testing an \u201cAerobot,\u201d which is essentially a remote controlled balloon in space. NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is considering sending one to Venus<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt hasn\u2019t gone yet,\u201d Tucker said. \u201cThis would be a few years down the road. But proving that this type of system can operate in the Venus atmosphere, which is predominantly acid and there\u2019s hundreds of degrees temperature difference between night and day, has some difficulties.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike a helicopter, a remote-controlled balloon could conceivably float around Venus for a long time, taking pictures and making measurements. Aerostar tested a prototype this summer. <\/p>\n \u201cWill it ever go? I don\u2019t know,\u201d said Tucker. \u201cI mean just like when we tested the aircraft to go to Mars, we proved that works.\u201d<\/p>\n At 12:40 p.m. EST, Dec. 11, 2022, NASA\u2019s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after a mission to the Moon. Aerostar is currently focused on the airbags that make sure the spacecraft remains upright during splashdown. It\u2019s part of NASA’s Artemis program to establish a long-term presence on the moon.<\/p>\n NASA\/James M. Blair \/ NASA\/James M. Blair<\/p>\n![\"Aeostar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/T72KDFNDOZGJPPV2ZPW5GEB7EM.jpg\")
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