Orion spacecraft successfully passed the landing test.

About the spacecraft Orion on Habré already written more than once. It is this ship, with a diameter of 5.3 meters and a weight of 25 tons, that will be used for launching cargo and people into space.

For example, it is on Orion that the astronauts will be delivered to an asteroid for its study. On the same ship, perhaps, people will fly to Mars (after the successful completion of the asteroid mission).
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Now, the Orion prototype is undergoing a variety of tests, including testing of a parachute landing system.

The last test ended the other day, and everything went smoothly. The capsule was lifted on a C-17 military plane, to a height of 10 kilometers, and then dropped down (the test region is the Arizona desert). The free fall lasted about 10 seconds, after which the landing system was launched, using parachutes (2 auxiliary and 3 main). Parachutes are very large, their total area is almost equal to the area of ​​a football field.

Of course, these are only preliminary tests, because Orion, when released into the atmosphere from space, will fall at a very high speed, about 32 thousand kilometers per hour.

Additional tests will be conducted in August of this year.

Orion itself is the successor of the Shuttles , and, as mentioned above, it will be used to carry out missions to the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid. The first test flight, if the tests run smoothly, will be completed by the end of this year, with a heavy Delta IV from NASA. Launch will be from Cape Canaveral.

Via NASA