All Questions
9 questions
2
votes
2
answers
260
views
Why do New Shepard's drogue chutes just "hang there" for ten seconds before deploying the main parachutes? What happens during that time?
The cropped and sharpened screenshots below are from the Blue Origin video Replay: New Shepard Mission NS-19 Webcast after about 02:03:16 (T+08:07) and show a ...
- 151k
1
vote
1
answer
195
views
Why does the New Shepard Crew Capsule sometimes deploy 3 parachutes and sometimes deploys only 2 parachutes?
The NS-18 capsule on Oct 13 2021 (with William Shatner aboard) landed with 3 parachutes deployed. In contrast, The NS-12 capsule on Dec 11 2019 landed with 2 parachutes deployed. Strangely in both ...
8
votes
2
answers
466
views
What is the heaviest object to have been returned to Earth with a parachute?
Per What were the biggest and heaviest spacecrafts to safely return from orbit?, the biggest and heaviest spacecrafts to safely return from orbit were space shuttles and space planes.
What were the ...
- 5,108
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How exactly were solid-fuel rockets added to the parachute lines of the Voskhod capsule?
This answer notes that Voskhod:
...added a small solid-fuel rocket to the parachute lines. It fired as the descent module neared touchdown, providing a softer landing.
How exactly did they safely ...
- 151k
17
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How does a landing spacecraft control main parachute inflation?
In a recent post from SpaceX about Crew Dragon parachute test you can see how the main parachutes are deployed in semi-folded state, after a while they inflate a bit and after another while they ...
- 846
2
votes
2
answers
425
views
Why haven't backup parachutes been used for spacecraft?
Skydivers normally wear a backup parachute. Apollo 15 survived with two out of three parachutes working properly. But wouldn't it be great to have a second deployment option, like skydivers do? The ...
- 27k
12
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Why does the Soyuz spacecraft's parachute have so many lines?
Image shows a myriad of lines holding down the parachute. I can't even count them all. Is this really necessary?
All those strings must surely add a lot of weight to the Soyuz TMA. I would think that ...
- 4,606
11
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why does Soyuz use a single large parachute vs 3 on most American capsules?
Apollo, Gemini, (Not Mercury), Dragon, CST-100, the set of American capsules all seem to use three parachutes for landing the capsules. This seems like it makes sense. They are usually designed for ...
- 80.5k
17
votes
2
answers
3k
views
What are the disadvantages of parachute+airbag for atmospheric landing, versus rocket-based?
After Sojourner success, repeated by Spirit and Opportunity, it seemed like we had developed a fail-proof system for atmospheric landing for our probes: there's very little that can go wrong with the ...
- 56k