NASA's Shuttle Successor Fails Parachute Test

The Orion crew module is part of NASA's Constellation program slated to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.

Orion will carry astronauts into orbit atop the Ares I rocket to dock with an orbiting Earth departure stage previously launched by an Ares V rocket, and from there proceed to the moon. The space shuttles are scheduled to retire from service as NASA's workhorses in 2010. The failure occurred in one of 10 parachutes that make up the testing equipment, and not in the parachute recovery system itself. Some of the parachutes helped the mock-up get clear of the C-17 airplane which carried the test capsule up to a drop height of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). The programmer chute that failed to inflate was designed to help two other stabilization chutes get the capsule into the right orientation, before releasing at a predetermined time to allow the parachute recovery system to take over.

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Now with a mind set of sending astronauts to the moon again by 2020, all the preparations for it are already taking place, hence the new spacecraft they are testing.
Will this force Russia to send their men to the moon before U.S. does? I am just speculating here!

A second space race would certainly be interesting, wonder what technology would come out of it. Just a shame its not mars instead of the moon this time around! Seems like it would be a better use of resources to aim for mars instead and not somewhere we've supposedly been before.

reply to post by Thebudweiserstuntman


The plan for the constellation program is to get to the Moon, then learn how to live on the Moon by building habitats. What we learn there we will apply to a trip to Mars. The ultimate objective of the constellation program (albeit on un-funded ultimate objective) is a manned-mission to Mars.

Hence the logo, which shows three "worlds" -- Earth, Moon, and Mars:
Constellation Logo

...And by the way, the fact that the parchutes failed is a little misleading. The actual parachutes that the Orion Capsule will use is not what failed -- it was a parachute that was supposed to set up the Orion Capsule in the proper oirientation for the REAL parachute test to take place. The failure of the "programmer chute" did not allow the actual Orion parachute test to occur.

[edit on 8/23/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]