Newly Designed Parachute By SpaceX To Raise Astronauts' Safety Levels

Space-X has recently tested its new four balloon Crew Dragon parachute, at the desert near Coolidge, Arizona. This is an integral extension designed for the Crew Dragon Spacecraft which will be used to safely land SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft carrying astronauts back from the International Space Station. As a test subject, the Space-X team attached a mass simulator as the weight with the assembled parachute.

Talking about appearance, all the four balloons display alternate candy red and white stripes. The system however lacks the main drogue chutes which a full landing system requires. Recently these parachutes were placed 1000 feet above the ground using a C-130 cargo aircraft.


The recent experiment was a part of the collaborative project between Elon Musk’s Space-X and NASA and was dubbed as a “Commercial Crew Program”. Space-X in order to support the final development and certification work of the program, would perform flight hardware testing and provide technical support that would eventually improve the spacecraft management, launching and landing. According to a NASA press release, future improvisations in the system would soon be witnessed.

Although for the time being, Space-X allows only ocean landing, the program’s goal is to land the spacecraft on land using eight SuperDraco engines. Space-X and Boeing have been collaborating with NASA separately since September 2014 to develop next generation spacecrafts which will be sent to the International Space Station from the United States.

Watch Crew Dragon Parachutes airing here:


Source: NASA