What Caused the Ares I-X Parachute to Fail? (2010)

Synopsis

Pull cord, deploy chute. Sounds simple, right? For the Ares I-X team the trick was in that "pull cord" step. After a thorough root cause analysis, NASA has pinpointed the likely culprit behind the Ares I-X parachute system anomaly -- an errant cord yank that caused one reefing line pyro charge to fire prematurely while still in the parachute pack. During the Ares I-X suborbital flight, the packed parachutes shook and shimmied inside the vehicle. Engineers believe the pack dynamics resulted in the snagging of a reefing line cutter lanyard, pulling the pin and activating the blade that cuts the line before the parachutes were deployed.

Uploader's description on archive.org

Details

Collection

NASA

Subjects on the Internet Archive

• ares I-x
• ares rocket
• parachute

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