NASA's inflatable heat shield has successfully landed on Earth. The planned use case is landing crewed modules on Mars, where heat shields have to be much bigger...while there's less heat, you need to create a lot more drag to slow down.
It also allows for a heat shield that is larger than the descending craft, or for a heat shield to be attached to something which doesn't normally have one.
(For example, your fictional starship might have inflatable heat shields on escape pods, because you don't know WHAT planet you might be trying to land on...)
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