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Loading Operations for Orion Spacecraft Parachute Test
Credit: NASA
A test version of the Orion spacecraft is loaded onto a C-17 aircraft in preparation for the 10th in a series of evaluations of its parachute system. During the test on July 24, 2013, the mock capsule was dropped from a C-17 aircraft at its highest altitude yet, 35,000 feet above the Arizona desert. One of three massive main parachutes was cut away early on purpose, leaving the spacecraft to land with only two. The test at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground was the highest-altitude test of a human spacecraft parachute since NASA's Apollo Program.
