http://www.space.com/15609-hang-gliding-birth-paresev-1.html

You probably don’t think of NASA and hang gliding together, but
their histories are interwoven. In the early 1960s, during the Mercury space
program, NASA studied the feasibility of using a steerable kite-like parawing as
a replacement for parachutes used then to safely land spacecraft on Earth. The
project was called Paresev, an acronym for Paraglider Research Vehicle.

The unpowered Paresev design was based on the Rogallo wing, conceived in the
late 1940s by Francis Rogallo, an aeronautical engineer who worked at the
Langley Research Center for the NACA (National Advisory Committee for
Aeronautics, a predecessor of NASA). The unpowered, triangular kite had an
aluminum frame covered in fabric. The pilot controlled the wing with an overhead
stick.