Shuttle replacement crashes

[Cam]

A test of the spacecraft due to replace the shuttle and take humans back to the moon has crashed after its landing parachutes failed. Linky with video!

To me this seems like a step backwards. I thought they were looking at getting into space easier? Making a system like the old Apollo rockets and capsules seems like an interim solution and not a real advancement.

[HalcyonDays]

To me this seems like a step backwards. I thought they were looking at getting into space easier? Making a system like the old Apollo rockets and capsules seems like an interim solution and not a real advancement.

It's not entirely fair to say it's like the old Apollo, but it does draw on many of the systems and lessons from that program. On the other hand, if you say they're looking at getting into space more easily, then you can do a lot worse than Apollo. There is a risk that, as happened with the Shuttle, we try to do too much with one system.

[Spad13]

Sure is a cool video. I especially liked how what seemed like about 15 parachutes in a row managed to fail.

[brianw999]

Ouch....That landing would have smarted a bit !!

[Tbun]

hmmm, they kept that quiet!

[Highkeas]

My expertise is parachute systems for aeospace applications. This looks like a poorly planned test.
However it was not a real spacecraft that was tested; it was a mass simulated parachute test vehicle.

[E-Diddy!]

Heh. That landing wasn't half as bad as some of mine.

[n777co]

Something tells me that is is an Oops....

[ATFS_Crash]

Am I interpreting the video correctly; was this a triple failure? ( primary chutes failed, secondary chutes failed, and last resort chutes failed? ) (Or was that secondary set a pair of drogue chutes?)

At least the tests discovered the problem before it resulted in deaths and mission failures. So in one respect the test was a failure but in another it was a success.

I think this also demonstrates that computers are not always as good at working out the bugs then a field test.

[Crunk415balla]

Wow. Epic failure of those parachutes.

[aardvark2zz]

The holes/vents at the top of the chutes were too big, thus the lack of inflation of the chutes.

If the vents are too small, the parachute stresses are higher during chute opening.

Obviously, the stresses ended up quite high anyways.
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