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Spinoff story
Orion Parachute Innovations Carry Commercial Rockets Back to Earth
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Airborne Systems Inc., whose Space and Recovery Systems branch is in Santa Ana, California, worked as a subcontractor to build the parachute system for the Orion capsule. The design is based in part on the Apollo spacecraft_s parachutes but incorporates updates and improvements requested by Johnson Space Center, which managed the contract. Johnson also carried out costly, repeated drop tests to prove the parachutes, which Airborne Systems now sells to several commercial spacecraft companies.