NASA Ares I rocket booster successfully parachutes to Earth

William Atkins
Friday, 16 November 2007 20:34

Science - Space

On November 15, 2007, NASA successfully tested the parachute system for its first-stage booster of its Crew Launch Vehicle (CLV), the new manned Orion crew capsule for the Constellation Project, set to replace the space shuttle fleet and help the United States return to the Moon and further explore space.          

The 42,000-pound (21-ton) rocket booster was flown inside a U.S. Air Force C-17 airplane and ejected out the back of the airplane. It fell freely until at about 16,500 feet above the ground, a 150-foot diameter, 1-ton, red-and-blue-stripe parachute opened and slowed the booster enough to make a soft-landing on the desert ground below. The total elapsed time from deployment to landing was about three minutes.

The test was conducted on the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground, which is near Yuma, Arizona.

The test did not validate the full weight of the rocket booster, which in real-time will weigh 200,000 pounds (100 tons). An earlier test on September 15, 2007, was also successful.

Although the test was not conducted with a full-weight rocket booster, it gave NASA engineers a good idea as to the aerodynamic conditions felt by the rocket when it is ejected from future Ares spacecraft after it has depleted its store of fuel upon sending the capsule into space during launch.

Steve Cook, director of the Ares Projects Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (Huntsville, Alabama), said, "Measuring 150-feet in diameter and weighing 2,000 pounds, this is the biggest chute of its kind that's been tested. With each milestone, we bring ourselves one step closer to further exploring the moon."

The Ares I and V boosters are being refurbished and reused like the shuttle’s solid rocket boosters (SRBs) but are much heavier. (A SRB has four sections, while the Ares booster has five sections.) Because of its extra weight, the parachutes are made of the stronger material Kevlar® rather than the lighter-weight nylon used for the parachutes of the SRBs. Because the parachutes for Ares are larger but lighter, to accommodate the heavier weight of the boosters, they can still fit in the same volume as the SRBs’ parachutes.

The Ares I and V parachute system consists of a small “pilot” parachute, which pulls out a 68-foot diameter “drogue” parachute. The drogue parachute maneuvers the booster rocket into a vertical position, while slowing its descent. Then, three “main” parachutes open, which slow the booster more and enable the booster rocket to safely land in the ocean waters below—ready to be towed back and refurbished, and used on another mission to space.

ATK Launch Systems, located near Promontory, Utah, is the prime contractor for the first stage booster. As subcontractor to ATK Launch Systems, United Space Alliance, headquartered in Houston, Texas, is responsible for the design, development, and testing of the parachutes.