NASA Orion Crash While Testing Launch Abort Parachute System

NASA tested the parachutes for the recovery system on its Orion crew exploration vehicle above the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona on July 31. The test proved unsuccessful when a test set-up parachute failed...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NASA
• Orion
• capsule
• parachute
• test

[crazybastard82]

not nasa's fault. blame annual budget cuts for the last 30 years. nasa's role went from being pioneers in extreme space exploration to merely bus drivers taking satellites into orbit. the constellation program is their chance at reviving its old status.

[rossco1966]

suddenly a glided reentry looks positively safe.....

[YoLninYo]

The good news is that the astronauts will be safe for 3 minutes during the ascent while the cameras are looking at it. Thanks to the 10 ton "escape rocket" which means they have to cut corners on everything else like proper failsafe and redundant parashute systems... because you see.. there isn't enough fuel because YOU GUESSED IT, the fuel was spent on lifting the useless escape rocket during the first 180 seconds... just so they wouldn' have "bad PR" during launch ... IDIOTS!! IDIOTS!

[skyprop]

Agreed

[ahz123]

That was a big bag of fail, on multiple levels.

[thepet3r]

oddly reminiscent of Genesis return capsule?

[mbissaro]

Like Sheldon Cooper says: "Oh Gravity, thou art a heartless bitch " :)

[ti994apc]

@crazybastard82 The constellation "program" is just another welfare program designed to keep the money coming in from the same old contractors. The Shuttle cost 1.5 BILLION p/launch, NASA is getting money. The problem is NASA is creating Programs and not using fixed cost mission oriented vehicles. Lockheed and the Thiokol Corporation have FAILED us. These contractors should be excluded from the next vehicle. NASA is forcing us to use the same crappy Shuttle parts.

[MrTheMLT]

@ti994apc OR the RFSA(Russian Federal Space Agency)'s Soyuz

[MrTheMLT]

@ldanley72 the reason there retesting it is because it is a bidder module w/ A LOT of updated systems

[MrTheMLT]

If this was maned, the crew would have (or should have) escaped within 5 sec of the parachute failure