NASA completed its most complex test of the Orion space capsule’s parachute system on June 25 in preparation for the ship’s maiden voyage in December 2014.
Orion is intended to deliver astronauts to an asteroid and, eventually, Mars. Orion’s first mission, however, will be Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1. Orion will be launched from Cape Canaveral atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. In the future, Orion will be launched to deep space destinations using the Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever built.
During this 4.5 hour mission, however, Orion will reach an altitude of 3,600 miles before returning to Earth. This first mission is to ensure that the spacecraft is safe for astronauts returning from deep space. The most pressing concern is the ship’s heat shield, which must be able to withstand temperatures of up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit while reentering the atmosphere.
The most recent test was focused on another area of Orion’s safety: its parachute system. Upon reentry, Orion may reach speeds of up to 20,000 miles per hour, and it’s up to the parachutes to slow the capsule’s descent to only 20 miles per hour for a safe landing in the Pacific Ocean.
For the June 25 parachute test, Orion was dropped from a C-17 aircraft over the Arizona desert, and the capsule was allowed to descend to Earth from a height of 35,000 feet. NASA also conducted a number of stress tests on the parachute system to guarantee the astronauts’ safety. Engineers tested the parachute system “by allowing the test version of Orion to free fall for 10 seconds, which increased the vehicle’s speed and aerodynamic pressure,” according to NASA, as well as by rigging one of the parachutes “to skip the second phase of a three-phase process of unfurling each parachute, called reefing.”
These extra tests guarantee that the parachutes can function properly in a variety of circumstances and help protect astronauts’ safety in the event of potential system failures.
“We’ve put the parachutes through their paces in ground and airdrop testing in just about every conceivable way before we begin sending them into space on Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1 before the year’s done,” said Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer in a statement from NASA.
The tests were successful. The first set of chutes, called the forward bay cover parachutes, deployed as planned. This part of the system is critical, as the deployment of the parachutes pulls away a protective shell called the forward bay cover. The second set of parachutes is located under the cover, so the parachutes can only deploy once the forward bay cover has been removed.
This was the final test of Orion’s complete parachute system before EFT-1, although there are still three parachute tests remaining before the spacecraft is deemed safe for astronauts. These last parachute tests include intentional failures of certain aspects of the system, as well as additional parachute design features.
Once all this testing is complete, Orion will be ready for its first manned missions.