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SpaceX successfully tested the parachute system on its Dragon capsule on Friday.

SpaceX successfully tested the parachute system on its Dragon capsule on Friday.

And in a competing test, NASA successfully tested Orion’s parachute system the day before.

Both systems plan test flights later this year to prove the safety of the spacecraft.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

5 comments

  • wade

    awesome, yet as I proclaimed Many moons ago. This is All nearly 50year old Tech. Yes , it is Modernized, but really, it is the What that NASA was doing in the mid ’60’s,

  • geoffc

    This test was key for the Pad Abort test, since they need to change the parachute deploy model, to account for a low altitude abort, to deploy that much faster than on a normal reentry profile. One more step closer…

  • I am very glad to see both successful tests, but I’m not sure if they were “competing”. Even if they were, Orion won because it held it’s test first.

  • geoffc

    Actually, SpaceX wins, since Dragon has launched and reentered with the previous parachute design 4 times. This was a test of a second version of the parachute system, to handle low altitude aborts. I.e. Icing on the cake. Still beats out Orion, since it has actually flown. (Assuming Orion ever actually flies).

  • And that’s fine, if there was a competition. You may have your hopes and perspectives on the matter, but I can tell you that there is no “competition” with SpaceX from the Orion side, and being that Elon Musk is a very smart man, I don’t think there is a “competition” going on there, either.

    SpaceX is doing what they should, which is make incremental improvement with each action his company takes. Chasing a “competitor” instead is a ticket to going off their plan, and invites failure. My hat is off to him for sticking to his goals instead of becoming caught up in trying to please the fanboy circus on both sides.

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