CPAS EDU-A-CDT-3-9 PTV-4 Airdrop Parachute Development Test

On May 1st, 2013, the NASA Capsule Parachute Assembly System (CPAS) team successfully completed an Orion parachute development drop test conducted at the U.S. Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Yuma, Arizona. This is the ninth in a series of the most flight-like Orion parachute tests to date, with each one designed to test a different condition or behavior of the parachutes. This test examined multiple failure modes such as how the drogue parachute system and boilerplate spacecraft would perform under the conditions of only one of two drogue parachutes being deployed in the highest dynamic pressure to date in the wake of a simulated spacecraft, and how the main parachute system would perform if one of the three main parachutes skipped first stage reefing. The combination of these two failure modes places the highest loading condition on the main parachute system and attachment to the spacecraft, and results in increased attitudes and rates on the simulated spacecraft. Flying at an altitude of 25,000 ft.,