Yuma--A space capsule will be dropped from nearly five miles above the earth. Its the fifth out of 18 test series the capsule will endure.
"Through each one of these tests we put the parachute through some failure scenarios or a set of rigorous environments," Chris Johnson, NASA project manager said. "That could happen on any given day on the flight vehicle, the spacecraft after re-entry from the deep space mission."
NASA and military officials gathered at the Yuma International Airport for a preview of will happen Wednesday morning.
The tests are part of the Orion program, the next vehicle that will go on missions to asteroids, the moon and even Mars.
"We need to make sure the designs meet the needs and if there's any tweaks that we need to make on the design, that we make them prior onto the final production for final flight," Johnson said.
NASA designed the tests to help determine the reliability of the parachute system.
"Parachute testing is very complex and chaotic and is very important for us to do full scale testing of this type of hardware," Johnson said. "Right now were working with the U.S. Army at YPG and the techniques they developed over the years from the low velocity air drop testing techniques."
The first unmanned Orion mission is scheduled for lift-off in about two years.
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