On Wednesday, William Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for human exploration and operations, said of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon during a House subcommittee hearing. The parachutes did not work as designed.
Boeing Starliner parachute drop tests have had similar to the one suffered by SpaceX last month.
Patricia Sanders, chair of NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, said parachutes are one of the largest risks faced by SpaceX and Boeing engineers working on NASA’s commercial crew program.
There have been some good tests but there are also problems. The parachutes have to be reliable before you humans are launched.
SOURCES- Congressional session, NASA
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
Of course the propulsive landing version of the Dragon capsule had more fuel capacity…
Well, if you use the Super Dracos for abort–you better have parachutes, cause the tanks will be slap dry.
I heard Orion Starliner and SpaceX all use the same ‘chute supplier.
Every system is custom designed, it’s not like “oh we built a tank in 1930, should be easy.” This is especially true of parachutes, however. Just because it’s been done before doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. That’s how how systems design works.
Meh.
I always have the sound turned off when web browsing, so is that the problem?
Also, the Dragon is bigger and heavier than the Apollo command module.
I was assuming an AI news collator that was gradually assuming sapience. But your story is less disturbing.
Parachutes for heavy-ish payloads are still not completely a thing. NASA goes through a lot of effort for theirs and still have issues, going to some serious extremes (making sure the ladies who are doing the chute packing all are same handed for instance). US military air drops have a nontrivial failure rate as well, and arguably they should be better at it through using the same systems for years with lots of practical experience (using processes and systems that should be removing most of the packing risks).
SpaceX can send its own astronauts up and use powered landings. Which of course they will with Starship.
Yeah, they really need to figure out a way to out-source responsibility for humans in space. Seems like the commercial space folks would be willing – after all, there are the tourism space folks, and Musk seems to want to send his own missions to Mars.
They are always chancy. There are reasons everyone ALWAYS has a reserve parachute.
NASA is much more risk adverse than they were back then. They’re terrified that, if they lose another astronaut, the backlash will result in their manned space flight program being terminated.
They are being held to a much higher standard than before.
Parachutes worked for the Mercury through Apollo capsules. Why are they a problem now?
Indeed. It was Nasa that insisted on parachutes.
“before you humans are launched”
I’m guessing that was written by a Klingon agent
I think i see why Musk wanted to do powered landings now.
Parachutes are freaking complicated and touche
are really PO’d at these Connatix ads ?