As skydivers well know, it's a good idea to look before you leap -- and to pack a trusty parachute, too. A weighty spacecraft zooming toward a planet's surface at several miles per second will, after ...

Parachutes being developed for Boeing's CST-100 Starliner undergo a reliability test using a "dart" in place of the crew capsule. Credit: NASA WASHINGTON — An incident involving a test of parachutes ...

Parachute design, development, and testing for planets beyond Earth is very similar to those designed for Earth. First, we pick a parachute type or shape based on the expected speed of the probe when ...

A scene from a video released by SpaceX Nov. 3 showing the latest test of the Mark 3 parachutes for its Crew Dragon spacecraft. Credit: SpaceX WASHINGTON — SpaceX said Nov. 3 that it has now carried ...

NATICK, Mass. -- Two research, development and engineering centers have come together to collaborate on making unique parachutes from high-strength para-aramid materials, which are sometimes used in ...

X-ray-based experiments will simulate -- in microscopic detail -- spacecraft parachute fabric performance in the extreme conditions of other planets' atmospheres. As skydivers well know, it's a good ...

To investigate three variables affecting a parachute's rate of descent and then design a parachute that will descend as slowly as possible. Discuss with students some uses for parachutes (to slow down ...

Discuss with students some uses for parachutes (to slow down human descent, to drop supplies and other materials into war zones, to slow down vehicles such as the space shuttle and the rovers). Ask ...