On May 1st, 2013, the NASA Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) team successfully completed an Orion parachute development drop test conducted at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. This is the ninth in a series of the most flight-like Orion parachute tests to date, with each one designed to test a different condition or behavior of the parachutes.
This test examined multiple failure modes such as how the drogue parachute system and boilerplate spacecraft would perform under the conditions of only one of two drogue parachutes being deployed in the highest dynamic pressure to date in the wake of a simulated spacecraft, and how the main parachute system would perform if one of the three main parachutes skipped first stage reefing. The combination of these two failure modes places the highest loading condition on the main parachute system and attachment to the spacecraft, and results in increased attitudes and rates on the simulated spacecraft.
Flying at an altitude of 25,000 ft., a drop-test vehicle called the Parachute Test Vehicle (PTV) was extracted from a C-17 aircraft and separated from the test platform. Once airborne and after reaching test conditions under one programmer parachutes, the Orion spacecraft parachute sequence was successfully completed with the deployment of one drogue parachute (simulating a drogue parachute failure), followed by three pilot parachutes which in turn pulled out the three main parachutes. One of the three main parachutes skipped first stage reefing, simulating a main parachute failure. The drop test article landed at the predicted speed of 25 feet per second, well within the maximum touchdown velocity of the Orion Spacecraft.
The PTV is capsule shaped and represents the Orion spacecraft, however it is designed quite different than the Orion spacecraft in that the internal structure is steel, lands on land, and is able to be reused for parachute testing.
The Orion uses two drogue parachutes and three main parachutes to decelerate the spacecraft. Of those, the 21,000-pound capsule needs only one drogue and two main parachutes for a successful landing. The extra two parachutes are deployed during the sequence and provide a backup in case one of the primary parachutes fails.
