HOUSTON The worlds largest parafoil soared in a second test Thursday morning carrying a weight equivalent to the six-person X 38 Crew Return Vehicle.
Akin to what skydivers use, only larger, the 7,500-square-foot (675-square-meter) parafoil lowered a cargo pallet weighing 24,000 pounds (10,800 kilograms) down to the desert floor of the Armys Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona.
Johnson Space Center engineers are designing the X 38 as a "lifeboat" for the International Space Station to go aloft in 2006. Until then, the station will use a Russian three-person Soyuz capsule.
The X 38 enters the atmosphere, flying much like the space shuttle, but then uses the parafoil to set the vehicle down gently.
NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said only two suspension lines broke, but caused no problems during the descent because of the large number of lines.
"Thats why we test," Hartsfield said. "It exposes what youll experience in reality, not on paper or charts."
Engineers will check the suspension lines and probably continue with the plan of test flying the parafoil about every two months. The parafoil, which has more surface area than the wings on a Boeing 747, flew its first test in February.
In July, program managers plan on using the parafoil in a flight test with an X 38 at Dryden Flight Research Center in Californias Mojave Desert.
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