Yesterday, engineers tested the parachute system for NASA’s Orion spacecraft at the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. During the test, a C-17 aircraft carried a representative Orion capsule to 35,000 feet in altitude and dropped it from its cargo bay. Engineers tested a scenario in which one of Orion’s two drogue parachutes, used to stabilize it in the air, does not deploy, and one of its three main parachutes, used to slow the capsule during the final stage of descent, also does not deploy. The risky test was a success and will provide data engineers will use as they gear up to qualify Orion’s parachutes for missions with astronauts. On Aug. 24, a C-17 was loaded with the test version of Orion, which has a similar mass and interfaces with the parachutes as the #Orion being developed for deep space missions but is shorter on top to fit inside the aircraft. Credit: NASA Want more from Orion? Go behind the scenes to meet the people building the spacecraft that will take h...