The Orion team has long been developing and conducting successful parachute testing of the system of 11 parachutes in the skies above the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground and will begin qualifying the parachute system in 2016 for crewed flights. Orion’s parachutes are essential to a successful mission, ensuring the capsule can slow down from its high-speed reentry to a relatively gentle 20 mph before splashdown. And, they look cool. Pictured here, parachutes land Orion safely to Earth during Exploration Flight Test One last December. Credit: NASA #Orion #parachute #ImOnBoard #NASA #testing #oceans #redwhiteblue