ExoMars parachute high-altitude drop test

Slow motion footage of ExoMars parachute during a high-altitude drop test. The video shows the 15 m-wide first stage main parachute being deployed flawlessly during a drop test on 24 June at the Swedish Space Corporation Esrange facility. After several weeks of bad weather and strong winds, the latest pair of high-altitude drop tests of the ExoMars parachutes took place in Kiruna, Sweden. Each high altitude drop test saw a dummy descent module lofted to an altitude of 29 km by a stratospheric balloon inflated with helium. Following release, the pilot chute extraction initiates with a controlled extraction of the main parachute from the doughnut bag. The first test focused on validating the Airborne Systems backup supersonic parachute – the first drop test for this parachute in this ExoMars test campaign. These tests took place after several weeks of bad weather in Kiruna, and follow the high-altitude drop tests in 2019, during which critical damage to both parachute canopies was observed. The ESA-Ros