Ares Parachute Drop Test in Yuma

NASA and industry engineers will drop a 72,000 pound test payload including this “jumbo dart” test article from the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft to test the design limit load of the Ares I rocket's main parachute. Engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manage the team conducting the test – the first in a series of three planned load limit tests – designed to place 100 percent of the flight dynamic pressures on the main parachute canopy. The main parachute, measuring 150 feet in diameter and weighing 2,000 pounds, is the largest rocket parachute ever built and the primary element of the rocket's deceleration and recovery system, which also includes a pilot parachute and drogue parachute. The parachutes work in tandem providing the drag necessary to slow the descent of the huge Ares I solid rocket motor. (Credit: NASA)

NASA and industry engineers will drop a 72,000 pound test payload from the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft from an altitude of 25,000 feet, tying the record for the heaviest load ever extracted from the aircraft during flight . The payload includes the main parachute for the Ares I rocket. This drop test is designed to push the parachute’s canopy to its limit -- supporting a 250,000-pound dynamic load. Dynamic load weight is generated by the drag and pull of the payload. The primary test objective is to achieve a dynamic pressure of 110 pounds per square foot on the canopy, simulating the conditions the main parachute will experience when it is deployed to slow the rapid descent of the rocket's spent first-stage motor. Engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manage the team conducting the test. (Credit: NASA)

NASA and industry engineers will drop a 72,000 pound test payload from the back of a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft from an altitude of 25,000 feet, tying the record for the heaviest load ever extracted from the aircraft during flight . The payload includes the main parachute for the Ares I rocket. This drop test is designed to push the parachute’s canopy to its limit -- supporting a 250,000-pound dynamic load. Dynamic load weight is generated by the drag and pull of the payload. The primary test objective is to achieve a dynamic pressure of 110 pounds per square foot on the canopy, simulating the conditions the main parachute will experience when it is deployed to slow the rapid descent of the rocket's spent first-stage motor. Engineers from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manage the team conducting the test. (Credit: NASA)

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/multimedia/ares/droptest_oct09.html