NASA completed another successful test of the Orion crew
vehicle's parachutes high above the Arizona desert in preparation for
the spacecraft's orbital flight test in 2014. Orion will carry
astronauts deeper into space than ever before, provide emergency abort
capability, sustain the crew during space travel and ensure a safe
re-entry and landing. A C-17 plane dropped a test version of Orion from
an altitude of 25,000 feet above the U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground in
southwestern Arizona.

This test used an Orion craft that mimics
the full size and shape of the spacecraft. The main objective of the
latest drop test was to determine how the entire system would respond if
one of the three main parachutes inflated too quickly. Since 2007, the
Orion program has conducted a vigorous parachute air and ground test
program and provided the chutes for NASA's successful pad abort test in
2010. All of the tests build an understanding of the chutes' technical
performance for eventual human-rated certification.