NASA tested the parachutes for its next-generation crewed spacecraft last month, as part of a campaign to prepare the capsule for its first orbital flight test in 2014.
A C-130 aircraft dropped a mockup of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle — which is designed to carry astronauts to deep-space destinations — from an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) near Yuma, Ariz., on Dec. 20. Engineers conducted the test to see how Orion would land if only two of its main parachutes deployed, rather than the usual three.
The new spaceship is based heavily on the Orion capsule concept originally developed for NASA's moon-oriented Constellation program. President Barack Obama cancelled Constellation in 2010, instead directing NASA to work toward getting astronauts to an asteroid by 2025 and then Mars by the mid-2030s.
The gumdrop-shaped Orion is 16.5 feet (5 m) wide at its base and weighs about 23 tons. The space capsule will have a pressurized volume of 690 cubic feet (20 cubic m), with 316 cubic feet (9 cubic m) of habitable space, according to an official description. It's designed to carry four astronauts at a time and return to Earth with splashdowns in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. [Photos: Orion's Parachute Test]
The SLS won't be ready for its first test flight until late 2017, officials have said. NASA wants Orion to make its first unmanned orbital test flight three years earlier than that, so the spacecraft will have to hitch a ride on a different rocket for that trip — likely a Delta 4 Heavy.
