spacetoday.net: Crew Dragon test article destroyed when parachute test goes awry

Crew Dragon test article destroyed when parachute test goes awry

Posted: Fri, Mar 27, 2020, 2:09 PM ET (1809 GMT)
A botched Crew Dragon parachute test Tuesday could also revise the schedule for that mission. SpaceX said that a helicopter carrying a Crew Dragon parachute test article was forced to release that test article early when it became unstable. The parachutes were not armed at the time of the release and thus did not deploy, and the test article was destroyed. SpaceX said this was not a failure of the parachute system itself because the parachutes never had a chance to deploy. SpaceX said earlier this month it was wrapping up its parachute tests, with only a couple left to perform before the system would be certified for flight. SpaceX said it is working with NASA "to determine the testing plan going forward" before flying Demo-2.