Nichols Martin
Jacobs Engineering Group and NASA have concluded tests of a parachute system that would support re-entry activities of the Orion spacecraft.
The team conducted the Capsule Parachute Assembly System‘s final qualification test at the U.S. Army‘s Yuma Proving Ground facility in Arizona, the company said Thursday.
During the test, a C-17 aircraft dropped the Orion capsule from an altitude of 35K feet to test the joint performance of the 11 parachutes, cannon-like mortars and pyrotechnic devices that comprises the reentry system.
The parachute system was developed by experts from NASA and a team of more than 50 technicians and engineers from Jacobs in Houston, Texas over a 12-year period.
Orion will use the system to safely return astronauts back to Earth from lunar missions.
