August 6, 2008

Orion Drop Test Fails

NASA Orion Parachute Test Vehicle Fails Drop Test

"All but one of the 18 parachutes inflated. Although all other parts of the test and the system itself performed as intended, the parachute responsible for getting the mockup to the correct test conditions - called a programmer chute - did not inflate during the test. As a result, the test failed. The engineering team will be studying the hardware and the parachutes, as well as analyzing computer models and imagery, to determine what caused the problem."


Posted by kcowing at August 6, 2008 9:09 AM
Comments

Well, this is what tests are for. One failure more now means one failure less when live people will be in this.

Posted by: MaDeR at August 7, 2008 12:28 PM

The failure happened on July 31st it was in the desert so once it got hot (115F) on the drop zone the participants had to wait until the next day (Aug 1st) to continue with the cleanup. All the pertinent data recorders were recovered on the day of the drop test. Also there were pictures of the damage being taken all the way up to Aug 3rd so no, NASA PAO will not have any pictures for a while since the testing area has to clear any and all pictures taken before they can be released.

This type of reporting (or what you call reporting) is why I read NASAWATCH with a grain of salt (ok a brick of salt).

Editor's note: The pictures exist.

Posted by: jack at August 7, 2008 1:37 PM

The pictures exist.

Yes, but they cannot be relesed yet.

Posted by: jack at August 7, 2008 1:48 PM
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