A footage was released by NASA today regarding SpaceX’s final certification test, which is required under the Commercial Crew Program. The drop test involved the use of four large parachutes—all part of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon landing system.
From the test, the parachute assembly carried out thousands of feet in the air onboard a C-130 cargo aircraft. Weights were utilized instead of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft. The parachutes themselves were rigged to deploy the same way they were meant to be when Crew Dragon returns the astronauts from the space station. NASA expects a reliable ride to the space station by the latter part of 2017.
