The "You Tried" Awards.

[Koguntetsu]

Today I would like to bring attention to some ideas that are so brilliantly ridiculous that they deserve the "You Tried" award. One of these ideas was "Operation MOOSE". (Or Man Out Of Space Easy) The basic concept was if your space vessel got damaged to the point where it was no longer safe to reside in you would jettison yourself out of said vessel and activate your MOOSE to return to earth safely. This MOOSE is more or less an inflatable heat shield that you strap to your back and plummet back to earth in. It would then release a parachute to allow safe descent. Once down, the heat shield would also serve as a flotation device until rescue teams could come to your aid.

[Jean-Eude]

but in itself this idea is not ridiculous at all, even if there are other capsules of this kind (a little bigger)

[Koguntetsu]

It's an amazing concept honestly. The whole reason I mention being "brilliant", though at the same time ridiculous. The thought of burning through the atmosphere with nothing but a heat shield on your back is astoundingly dangerous but in emergencies may be your only chance of survival. This concept was scrapped though because of how dangerous it may be, giving it the "You Tried" award. As in they tried, but the idea was rejected and never came to be a real design.

On another note, "Fearless Felix" jumped to earth from orbit, quite an impressive feat in itself.

https://youtu.be/7f-K-XnHi9I