One of two spacecraft lost for more than a week in the steppe of southern Russia is now recovered, a spokesman told SPACE.com.

The smaller of the two inflatable reentry shields, known as IRDTs, was picked up Tuesday by a search team and delivered to a military base near Orenburg by helicopter, NPO Lavochkin representatives said.

NPO Lavochkin designed the shields. They were created to protect a payload as it reenters the atmosphere on its way back to Earth. The mission was a joint venture with Daimler-Chrysler.

Preliminary data shows some damage to the IRDT, which apparently occurred during touchdown in very bad weather.

The small reentry shield, which reached 26 feet (8 meters) in diameter when inflated, carried a 243-pound (110-kilogram) satellite demonstrator. The spacecraft will be delivered to Moscow on Wednesday for a detailed examination, said NPO Lavochkin spokesman Konstantin Pichkhadze.

"It is too early to congratulate us with the success of the mission since we [have] yet to establish the extent of the damage to the spacecraft," Pichkhadze told SPACE.com.

A search for the larger IRDT device, which was expected to deliver the Fregat upper stage to Earth, continued today as the visibility in the landing area improved, Pichkhadze said. The IRDT device, which carried Fregat into the atmosphere, reached 46 feet (14 meters) in diameter when inflated.

Both IRDT devices were launched on February 8 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan as an additional payload to the test flight of the Fregat upper stage. The IRDT-type technology promises to be a compact and cheap way of returning cargo from space.