[meteorite-list] NASA Tests Orion Spacecraft Parachute Jettison over Arizona

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 15:32:46 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201401162332.s0GNWkBd009454_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

January 16, 2014

Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
rachel.h.kraft at nasa.gov

Brandi Dean
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
brandi.k.dean at nasa.gov
     
RELEASE 14-019
     
NASA Tests Orion Spacecraft Parachute Jettison over Arizona

Engineers testing the parachute system for NASA's Orion spacecraft increased
the complexity of their tests Thursday, Jan. 16, adding the jettison of
hardware designed to keep the capsule safe during flight.

The test was the first to give engineers in-air data on the performance of
the system that jettisons Orion's forward bay cover. The cover is a shell
that fits over Orion's crew module to protect the spacecraft during launch,
orbital flight and re-entry into Earth's atmosphere. When Orion returns from
space, the cover must come off before the spacecraft's parachutes can deploy.
It must be jettisoned high above the ground in order for the parachutes to
unfurl.

"This was a tough one," said Mark Geyer, Orion program manager. "We'd done
our homework, of course, but there were elements here that could only be
tested in the air, with the entire system working together. It's one of the
most complicated tests that we'll do, so we were all excited to see it work
just as it was meant to."

Previous parachute tests at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Grounds in Arizona
tested the performance of the parachutes in various conditions without a
forward bay cover. Adding the cover and its jettison, along with the
deployment of three additional parachutes to pull the cover away from the
crew module and lower it to the ground, added a level of complexity to the
testing.

"The parachute deployment and forward bay cover jettisons are two of the most
difficult things for us to model on computers," said Chris Johnson, project
manager for the parachutes. "That's why we test them so extensively. These
systems have to work for Orion to make it safely to the ground, and every bit
of data we can gather in tests like these helps us improve our models and
gives us more confidence that when we do it for real, we can count on them."

The forward bay cover is jettisoned using a thruster separation system built
by Systima Technologies Inc. of Bothell, Wash. Lockheed Martin, prime
contractor for Orion, tested the system for the first time on the ground in
December. Two more ground tests will simulate different types of stresses on
the cover, such as a potential parachute failure or loads on the spacecraft.
NASA also plans a second airborne test with the forward bay cover to evaluate
its performance with a failed parachute.

Orion will be put to its first test in space during its first mission,
Exploration Flight Test-1(EFT-1), in September. EFT-1 will have an uncrewed
Orion launch to an orbit 3,600 miles above Earth, well beyond the distance
traveled by spacecraft built for humans in more than 40 years. After circling
Earth twice, Orion will re-enter the atmosphere at speeds as fast as 20,000
mph before the parachute system slows it down for a splashdown in the Pacific
Ocean.

For information about Orion and EFT-1, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/orion

-end-
Received on Thu 16 Jan 2014 06:32:46 PM PST