If you were just returning from a deep space mission, wouldn’t you like to know that you will land safely?
Engineers at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia have begun testing to ensure just that. A model of the Orion crew capsule is participating in nine drop tests beginning this month. Inside the representative capsule are crash test dummies that are secured and instrumented to provide data to engineers. This will help provide the Orion team with the information they need to ensure the safety of astronauts during splashdown.
Astronauts onboard NASA’s Orion crew capsule will land in the Pacific Ocean after their deep space missions. The Orion capsule previously completed a successful unmanned spaceflight in 2014, and its space-flown heat shield is being used on the high-fidelity capsule for these drop tests.
The first test hoisted the representative Orion capsule approximately 16 feet above the water and dropped it into Langley’s Hydro Impact Basin.
The spacecraft may experience many different scenarios when touching down in the sea, so each test in the series simulates a different scenario for Orion’s parachute-assisted landings, wind conditions, velocities and wave heights.