Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Orion parachute test, drop day

Orion parachute test, drop day
Orion parachute test, drop day NASA’s Orion spacecraft completed a key parachute test August 26, 2016 at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. After being dropped by a C-17 aircraft from a height of 35,000 feet, Orion descended to the ground with a simulated failure of one drogue parachute and one main parachute. This was the sixteenth parachute development test, and the next-to-last of the program before crewed flight qualification tests begin next year. Jason Davis / The Planetary Society