On 31 July NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle parachute recovery system test mock-up was badly damaged when it crashed to Earth because of an uninflated programmer chute.

Dropped from a Boeing C-17 over the US Army's Yuma testing grounds in Arizona, the mock-up was released from its pallet and then the programmer chute, used to get the mock-up in the correct orientation, altitude and speed for the test, failed to inflate.

As the programmer chute did not inflate the actual recovery parachute system also failed.

Orion mockup crash
©NASA

 Above: NASA's Orion crew exploration vehicle parachute recovery system test mock-up is badly damaged after crashing to Earth

Keep up to date on Nasa's Orion with Rob Coppinger's Hyperbola blog ...

 

Source: Flight International