NASA's Orion Spaceship Passes Parachute Test 75
An anonymous reader writes The spacecraft it is hoped will take man to Mars has passed its first parachute tests. Nasa's Orion spacecraft landed gently using its parachutes after being shoved out of a military jet at 35,000 feet. "We've put the parachutes through their paces in ground and airdrop testing in just about every conceivable way before we begin sending them into space on Exploration Flight Test (EFT)-1 before the year's done," Orion program manager Mark Geyer said in a NASA statement. "The series of tests has proven the system and will help ensure crew and mission safety for our astronauts in the future."
I really wish they named the ship something else (Score:5, Insightful)
Every time I see Orion mentioned, I get my hopes up about nuclear powered interstellar craft.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P... [wikipedia.org]