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Old 08-22-2008, 11:42 PM   #5
Greg
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Yes, it got really banged up. I haven't heard whether the structure can be salvaged. Fortunately, it was a structural test article, designed to have the same shape and weight as an Orion spacecraft but without any of the really expensive stuff that would make it a spaceship.

The parachute that failed wasn't even one of the Orion parachutes. It was a "programmer" chute that was supposed to set up the spacecraft in the right attitude and velocity to simulate the return of the spacecraft, and then let go. Unfortunately, the programmer chute got tangled up somehow and failed to open, and everything was a mess after that.

FYI, I didn't have anything to do with this test. I'm just reading what it says on the NASA public web site.
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