A balloon-like device used in aerospace to slow down a spacecraft or vehicle during descent through an atmosphere, especially for reentry from space.
A portmanteau of 'balloon' and 'parachute,' coined in aerospace engineering during the space program development in the 1960s.
The ballute is a space-age word created by literally mushing 'balloon' and 'parachute' together—engineers needed something between the two concepts, so they just invented the perfect portmanteau, showing how technical language evolves when existing words don't quite fit reality.
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