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Parachutes lower the ill-fated Apollo 13 into the Pacific Ocean, returning its crew safely back to Earth.

Parachutes in spaceflight

Parachutes and other aerodynamic decelerators have been used extensively in spaceflight and activities above the Armstrong limit. The extreme environments in which (near-)spaceflight is conducted have necessitated the development of parachute systems designed to withstand them in order to enable consistently reliable recovery or slow down spacecraft for prolonged data gathering or landing. Parachutes also serve a vital role in human spaceflight and save lives during emergencies involving astronauts. Inflatable decelerators for aerocapture and deorbiting satellites without the need for propellant have been proposed and are being developed for future missions.

The development of parachutes for space have benefitted all areas where parachutes have been put to use. Although they have been a part of spaceflight for as long as it exists, parachutes are still considered among the most difficult technologies to develop in aerospace, largely because of the difficulties associated with predicting their behavior and that of their deployment systems. Despite this, and the rise of technologies enabling reliable deceleration and recovery without the help of parachutes, they are still favored over those technologies, largely because of their relatively low cost and risk, low weight, small storage volume requirements and wide applicability.

History

A packed parachute, its nosecone housing and its deployment device, built by Robert H. Goddard, 1935

Parachutes were invented and developed in parallel with air- and spacecraft. [Goddard? Chinese rocketeers?] They have been innovated on extensively during both World Wars and the Cold War, when they started to become mass-produced and mass-deployed because of tactical and strategic advantages they offer.

The US Government acquired parachute experts along with other top engineers from Germany during Operation Paperclip, the most prominent of them being Theodor Knacke and Helmut Heinrich. They were tasked with

Considerations

Spacecraft are usually significantly larger, heavier and faster objects than individual personnel, food boxes and artillery vehicles, resulting in significant challenges for the development of parachutes for spaceflight.

Artefacts descending through an atmosphere create a wake behind them, The parachute is deployed behind that wake.

Properties

Parachutes are

[packing?] are packed tightly, often with the assistance of a hydraulic press.

The materials used on parachutes are selected and weighed on the basis of their strength, weight, elasticity and cost. On advanced parachutes, each part is made with a material with different properties.

The heavy objects needing to be slowed down or recovered and fast speeds reached by these objects necessitated the development of multi-parachute systems. To reduce , an object deploys a series of parachutes, instead of one parachute. drogue parachutes, smaller and made of stronger fabric. The drogue serves to stabilize the fast-moving payload through its descent in the higher parts of the atmosphere, setting up the right conditions for the main parachute to be deployed at much lower altitudes.

Preferably, parachutes are deployed when the velocity of its payload is subsonic, although this is sometimes not possible or most optimal for the mission.

Testing

Parachute systems for spaceflight are subjected to extensive testing regimes to ensure their performance during missions. This includes deployment systems, release systems and associated landing systems, as well as the payload itself. Computer and mechanical simulations are far from sufficient for determining their effectivity and performance. Since [there are computers], fluid structure imagery, but [still not good enough].

Deployment system tests

Mortar fire test of the X-38 emergency drogue parachute

Parachute deployment systems are as essential for successful landing or recovery of payloads and missions as the parachutes themselves. Most parachutes used in spaceflight need to be successfully deployed without any human intervention. The performance of the entirely automated parachute deployment system of a spacecraft therefore needs to be tested and evaluated thoroughly.

Many deployment systems used in spaceflight are pyrotechnics-based

Vacuum chamber tests are employed to verify proper functioning of rocket and spacecraft avionics systems that signal the right altitude to deploy the parachutes.

Wind tunnel tests

The parachute for the Galileo entry probe being tested in a wind tunnel

Wind tunnel tests are able to simulate the high loads on parachutes that they will experience during an actual flight, as well as simultaneously test the deployment systems with the parachutes, while they can be employed with limited budgets and resources. Many universities and research institutes worldwide have their own wind tunnels, or access to it. The world's largest wind tunnel is part of the Ames Research Center, and has successfully tested parachutes no more than [feet (m)] in diameter.

[disadvantages] Some parachutes, including most of those used for crewed missions, are too large even for the Ames wind tunnel, so subscale parachutes were tested instead. [size does matter]

Drop tests

Example of a typical drop test; a Boeing Starliner qualification article is pulled from a carrier aircraft by an extraction parachute

Drop tests can be performed by releasing test articles from carrier aircraft, high-altitude balloons and crane helicopters, at varying altitudes up to around the Armstrong limit. They are able to more realistically simulate the loads to be experienced by parachutes while on an actual mission, especially for Earth return missions. They are frequently used to test recovery systems for crewed spacecraft, and are also used to test uncrewed and interplanetary mission recovery systems.

Rocket tests

A rocket sled being used for testing parachutes and experimental inflatable devices

Sounding rocket tests have been employed for high-altitude and interplanetary entry missions considered important where there is a higher risk of failure. Parachutes, measuring equipment and weight simulators are launched into higher parts of Earth's atmosphere, often Mars-analog conditions. Such tests are noted to be very expensive and not necessary for most missions, most of which took place in parallel with the Apollo program for NASA's first interplanetary entry missions. High-speed parachutes for uncrewed missions find significant benefit in full-scale analog simulations, especially for experimental types of parachute that failed in those tests while having proven to be successful in wind tunnel and drop tests.

Rocket sled tests aim to reproduce these high speeds and high loads on the surface, by attaching the parachute to a rocket-powered railcar.

Performance analysis

Any parachute used in spaceflight that returns to Earth is preferably recovered for performance analysis. For programs where parachute performance analysis is very important, high-speed cameras are used to analyse the deployment and inflation processes of parachutes, and occasional or [] failures. A point of analysis unique to space parachutes is investigating the effects of exposure to space conditions, including radiation and extreme temperature changes experienced by the payload carrying it.

Recovery procedures for parachutes and their payloads are thorougly rehearsed to prevent damaging or losing the parachutes. Parachutes that are recovered from the ocean are carefully lifted onto recovery vessels, rinsed with fresh water to remove salt and dirt, cleaned of wildlife if needed, and hung to dry before they can be inspected. This needs to be done as quickly as possible, because the parachutes may drift away and get lost, or get saturated with sea water and sink to lower parts of the ocean. This would result in performance data being lost, and the parachutes becoming environmentally hazardous.

High-altitude payload recovery

The film recovery capsule of the Discoverer 14 reconnaissance mission and its main parachute being recovered

This section discusses uses of parachutes during recoveries of uncrewed objects launched to (near-)space from Earth back to Earth.

In this article, near-space is defined as the area in Earth's atmosphere between the Armstrong limit, roughly 62,000 feet (19 km) above sea level, and the boundary of outer space at 62 miles (100 km). The Armstrong limit is the point where the air density is low enough for water to boil at human body temperature. Artefacts descending from space and through this portion of the atmosphere can easily reach supersonic speeds without any means of propulsion and become unstable.

Suborbital recovery

Payloads and small vehicles on a suborbital trajectory use parachutes to return to Earth for recovery, inspection and/or reuse. Recovery parachutes for high-altitude balloons and sounding rockets are available to consumers off-the-shelf. They can also be sewn from scratch, as long as payload weight, size and shape are taken into account adequately.

High-altitude balloons

Recovery parachutes are seen being attached on weather balloons while they are being prepared for flight

Parachutes for high-altitude balloon payloads do not require dedicated extraction or deployment systems. Usually, a hook attaches a balloon to the apex of the parachute, which is in turn attached to a satellite, radiosonde or novelty payload. Parachutes without a vent at the apex come with a loop of fabric for attachment. When the balloon bursts (flight termination), the parachute is usually immediately placed in a position in which it can inflate and slow down its payload. The relatively low speed of the vehicle at flight termination allows for relatively simple parachutes to be used for recovery, despite the high altitude and low density which they are exposed to.

Weather balloon payloads are often single-use, as are their parachutes. During parachute descent, they often drift away from the launch site, sometimes as far as [] . have expressed concerns about environmental pollution

Sounding rockets and amateur rocketry

The parachutes of hobby rockets can be subjected to extreme loads even in low altitudes.

Sounding rockets and amateur rockets are prefered to be recovered intact. Usually, hardware needs to be recovered in order to collect data on rocket performance or onboard payloads. Recovery of sounding rockets requires the use of stronger parachutes, because of the high, often supersonic or even hypersonic, speeds, and very high altitudes reached by such rockets. This also applies to most amateur and student rockets which do not reach extreme altitudes, because of the high speeds that are still achieved by such rockets.

An amateur rocket stage descending under parachute

Deployment systems for suborbital rockets can be relatively simple and similar to skydiving systems, or as advanced as those found in larger spacecraft. Recovery systems may or may not be used on all stages of a rocket. Parachutes flown on any rocket using flammable propellant need to be protected by recovery wadding, heat-resistant recovery bags or other fireproof systems, that prevent them from burning up. Many high-power rockets employ a multistage parachute system, consisting of at least a drogue and a main parachute. Using a main parachute only is not recommended for high-power rockets, because it is very likely that it is shredded at extreme speeds. Instead of drogues or even mains, streamers may be used by small amateur rockets. These strips of fabric stabilize rocket parts by producing a very small amount of drag, so they fall significantly faster than under drogues. These are used because they are cheaper decelerators, and/or to prevent rocket parts from drifting far away from the launch site.

Amateur rocketry provides students and other enthusiasts with many opportunities to hands-on improve their skills and increase their knowledge in a variety of engineering topics, including parachutes. Student rocketry clubs usually have teams dedicated to developing and producing parachutes and deployment systems. [thesis or doctorate assistance]

Recovery of orbital rocket stages and spacecraft

Demonstration of the ExoBrake small satellite deorbiting system

The risks and [] are [multiplied tenfold or something] for uncrewed spacecraft that return to Earth.

Uncrewed capsules for uncrewed missions are relatively small . Most of them employ drogue parachutes, while some, including the Hayabusa capsules, only employed a main parachute combined with a pilot chute.

Exo-Brake was a NASA program/system for deorbiting small spacecraft at the end of their service life.

Planetary entry

Further information: Atmospheric entry

Video of ESA's Huygens probe descending and landing on Titan. Status on deployed parachutes shown upper left.

A variety of parachutes and non-propulsive decelerators have been developed for interplanetary missions. Densities and temperatures of atmospheres, as well as gravitational pulls, vary across the Solar System's celestial bodies. Parachute systems developed for planetary entry missions are always built to be adept to extreme conditions, because of the limited resources available to engineers to simulate the conditions found in and around planets outside Earth.

Most development for planetary entry parachutes took place from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. NASA used part of the large budget granted to the agency at the time by the US Government for testing parachutes in extreme near-space, often Mars-analog conditions.

Mars

Further information: Mars atmospheric entry and Mars landing

Its relative similarities with and relatively short distance from Earth compared to other celestial bodies makes Mars a very attractive location for scientific research, and the planet deemed most suitable for being the first outside Earth to become inhabited by humans. With more than half of all Mars landing attempts ending in failure, deceleration in the Martian atmosphere has proven particularly challenging. Due to the limited amount of thrust current rockets can produce, heavy mechanical systems are not ideal for Mars landing missions. As of April 2024, all successful soft-landing missions on Mars have relied on the supersonic parachute for deceleration after atmospheric entry.

The very thin atmosphere of Mars does not allow for viable parachutes to be used for soft-landing all the way down, as shown by the wreckage of the Mars 2020 parachute system.

Mars' atmosphere is a hundred times less thick than Earth's. Like on the Moon, spacecraft can only soft-land with the use of retropropulsion, but the presence of an atmosphere requires for a heat shield to be employed as well. Due to weight and size restrictions, which have been stringent for Mars and interplanetary missions, use of retropropulsion has as of 2024 always been limited to the very last phase before touchdown. Instead, parachutes have been employed to drastically decelerate a craft in the lower atmosphere of Mars until retropropulsion can be effective. Nevertheless, payloads will still crash on Mars when only using parachutes because, even close to the ground, there is too little air resistance for the terminal velocity to be within the boundaries of a soft landing.

Parachutes used for Mars landings need to withstand very high speeds in low-pressure environments. These supersonic parachutes usually need to be considerably larger than drogue parachutes used during Earth returns, increasing the risk of vehicle re-contact, self-contact, tearing and shredding upon deployment and inflation.

[Although parachutes are found to be reliable, it is increasingly prefered that they are not used on future missions to Mars.] [] JPL engineers have proposed and are testing alternative means to slow down and land the Mars Sample Return lander on Mars to remove the need for parachutes. SpaceX has provided NASA with data on retropropulsion in Mars-analog conditions during its Falcon reusability program, and plans to land its Starship spacecraft on Mars using its heat shield and landing engines only.

Human spaceflight

An astronaut-candidate using parachute fabric to build a shelter during survival training

As of 2024, all human-rated spacecraft have used round parachutes for at least a significant amount of their recoveries. Most spacecraft supporting human missions have relied on parachutes for deceleration in the lower parts of the atmosphere and touchdown; some landed or have been planned to land on a runway with or without the help of parachutes. Although propulsive vertical landing has also been proposed for some spacecraft, parachutes are advantaged by their proven reliability and continue to be used despite their low precision due to susceptibility to changing winds. Astronauts and high-altitude aviators are trained to use the components of parachutes to make tents, clothing or other items useful for survival after emergency landings. Many of them have gone through extensive training for near-space emergency bailouts and subsequent freefall and parachute descent phases.

Crewed capsule parachutes

A Soyuz capsule touching down under the eye of a recovery helicopter

Parachute descent is the most frequently employed method of bringing crew and valuable cargo back to Earth safely, and has been used for all crewed capsules and recoverable cargo capsules. [reasons for this include the ability to recover the capsule on almost any surface]

A series of round parachutes have been used for recovery by every human-rated space capsule, although a glider-like parachute was proposed for the Gemini project. The Apollo capsules were the first human-rated spacecraft to use a cluster of multiple parachutes.

The Mercury, Gemini, Soyuz and Shenzhou capsules have employed a single drogue with a single main. The Apollo, Orion and Boeing Starliner capsules have used a system with [pilots, drogues and mains]. The Blue Origin New Shepard and SpaceX Dragon capsules use a simplified multi-parachute deployment system with up to three drogues, which pull out up to four mains when released.

Deployment sequence

An Orion test capsule releases its drogue parachutes (one is seen upper right), after which pilot chutes (middle) extract its main parachutes.

After entering the thicker parts of the atmosphere, usually around an altitude of (10-5 km), the capsule deploys one or more drogue parachutes, by means of a mortar or mortar-deployed pilot parachute. This may be preceded by the ejection of the capsule's top cover, sometimes descending under its own parachutes to increase safety margins. Depending on the size, weight, speed and safety requirements of the capsule, the drogues remain attached to the capsule for a few seconds to a full minute. The main parachutes are then extracted by either the drogues or pilot parachutes that are fired from their own mortars after the drogues are cut away.

The main parachutes of SpaceX Crew-4 in their second stage of reefing. Note the differing rates of inflation.

To reduce shock loads and acceleration forces on astronauts and fragile cargo upon deployment, most crew capsule parachutes have their drag coefficient temporarily reduced in a process called reefing. This is usually achieved by [holding the skirt together ] one or more lines around the skirt of the parachute, restricting the circumference of the canopy mouth. The lines are then cut by a small machine after a pre-determined amount of seconds. Reefing also reduces and helps to evenly distribute stresses on the canopies and lines, and in particular for larger parachutes, ensures proper inflation.

During parachute descent, ground control informs astronauts on parachute deployment, the speed of descent and the status of the parachutes. The crew, unable to see what happens outside, is notified if the parachutes appear healthy (fully deployed, inflated and undamaged), and if not, what precautions to take. Upon touchdown or splashdown, the main parachute(s) is/are usually released from the capsule to prevent entanglement and inadvertent redirection of the capsule upon re-inflation, and to enable recovery of the parachutes and the capsule. Spacecraft manufacturers [must] ensure that the crew can cut away the parachutes when the parachute fails to release itself or during certain malfunctions.

Uses of parachutes by spaceplanes

For spaceplanes, parachutes are often not necessary because the shape of these vehicles allows for them to be flown like gliders in the lower parts of the atmosphere and landed like any other airplane. Use of drag chutes is still prefered, because of the higher landing speeds of such spacecraft than is usual for aircraft.

Space Shuttle Discovery deploys its brake chute at the end of STS-119

In the later years of its service, the Space Shuttle used a [diameter] brake chute to help slow itself down. Research conducted after the Challenger disaster found that [erosion of the wheels]. Drogue parachutes were used starting from the maiden flight of Endeavour (STS-49) in 1992 [?], and all Shuttles were equipped with drogues by []. The parachute was deployed by a pilot chute and released just before the Shuttle came to a standstill (wheels stop) and retrieved after use. Each parachute was reused up to ten times.

The NASA X-38, a proposed lifeboat vehicle for ISS crewmembers, would have used a parachute much in the way space capsules do. It was designed to deploy its parachute while still in the air and descend under canopy.

Near-space emergency egress

Main article: Space diving

The parachute deployment sequence of the Gemini launch escape system

Flying above 40.000 feet (12 km) became increasingly common practice during the Second World War, and many concerns on high-altitude bailouts had already surfaced by then. These concerns were amplified by the development of aircraft capable of flying at supersonic speeds and above the Armstrong limit not much later, requiring pilots to wear pressure suits when flying them. To address existing concerns and uncover new ones, both the US and the Soviet Union undertook several development programs from the 1940s to 1960s to enable their military pilots to survive bailing out at extreme altitudes during emergencies. Under these programs, great benefit was found in the use of drogue parachutes for stabilizing personnel falling from high altitudes, and delaying the opening of main parachutes until thicker parts of the atmosphere are reached. Since the Cold War, there have been at least two incidents involving high-altitude aircraft in which the crew were forced to egress in or otherwise made to descend on their own in the conditions of near-space.

Ground crew assist a Space Shuttle astronaut with his parachute pack

Similarly, to protect them from the hazards of high altitude during emergencies, Space Shuttle astronauts flying before STS-5 and after STS-51L wore a full pressure suit and a 72 lbs (32 kg) parachute pack with emergency supplies during launch and reentry. During the first four Shuttle flights, astronauts had the capability to eject from the spacecraft during a malfunction at virtually any altitude during ascent or descent. This capability was previously found in the Gemini crew capsule. After STS-4, Space Shuttle Columbia had its ejection seats deactivated, and all other Shuttles were not outfitted with crew ejection systems; because the Space Shuttle always flew with at least four crew after the testing campaign, ejection seats were considered impractical. [was met with criticism from pilots and other personnel] Escape pods were proposed for the Space Shuttle to be used sometime after STS-5, [but that did not go through]. After the Challenger disaster, the remaining Shuttle orbiters were modified to enable emergency egress of up to eight crew when the spacecraft was in a stable position at no higher than 60.000 feet (18 km). Astronauts would leave the spacecraft by sliding down a pole they deployed from the ingress hatch to avoid recontact with the shuttle, before automatic systems would deploy their parachutes at an appropriate altitude.

[Since the [], scholars have [] if an astronaut could survive returning to Earth from space or even orbit with only a spacesuit] Freefall jumps above Armstrong, and the associated research on its effects on people and parachutes, [] after the jumps of Joseph Kittinger and Yevgeny Andreyev in the 1960s, and regained attention after Felix Baumgartner's in 2012 [although no significant scientific data came out of that] . Former Google executive Alan Eustace broke the record for highest-altitude parachute jump after working with a team of scientists and engineers to [seek an answer to that question].

Types of parachute developed for or frequently used in spaceflight

Selection of decelerators developed for space environments, by Goodyear

The complex and wide-compassing process of addressing the challenges of deceleration in spaceflight and near-space activities has resulted in the invention and development of many types of parachute. They vary greatly in strength, porosity, size and function, so there are parachutes fit for almost every circumstance involving an atmosphere. Some have known widespread use in areas outside of spaceflight, while others are specifically tailored to the extremes of space.

Ribbon parachutes

Ribbon parachutes are very tolerant to high speeds, due to their high porosity. Their invention is attributed to Theodor Knacke [was he part of the FIST team that is accredited with its invention in the 1930s?]. The canopies of ribbon parachutes consist of dozens of rings ('ribbons') of thick, high-strength fabric roughly one or two inches (several centimeters) wide, separated by gaps approximately the same size. They are often reused, even those used in spaceflight recoveries.

Conical ribbon

SpaceX Crew-4 descending under drogues

Conical ribbon parachutes have known extensive use in aerospace. have the highest drag coefficient for high-porosity parachutes. [why?]

Conical ribbon parachutes have served as braking parachutes for high-altitude aircraft and spaceplanes, including the SR-71 Blackbird and the Space Shuttle. They have also been instrumental in the recovery systems of most space capsules, where they have been employed as drogue parachutes. A conical ribbon parachute served as the final slowing mechanism for the Galileo entry probe during its descent through Jupiter's atmosphere.

Hemisflo ribbon

Hemisflo ribbon parachutes are ribbon parachutes specifically designed to stabilize and decelerate payloads at speeds up to Mach 3. Its name is derived from The Delft Aerospace Rocket Engineering team

Ringslot

The Ringslot is a derivative design to the conical ribbon, with larger and fewer rings and gaps between them. This type was also developed by Knacke, while at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Parachutes of this type are often made of thinner material than ribbon parachutes. In spaceflight, they have found extensive use as extraction parachutes for drop tests, braking chutes and pilot chutes.

Ringsail

Ringsail parachutes have been used on all American space capsules, as far back as Gemini and before.

Another derivative of the ribbon parachute is the ringsail, invented in 1955 by Ed Ewing. It improved on the Ringslot design by increasing its drag coefficient through [the use of sails, or pockets]. Although more expensive to produce than most other parachutes, this type is renowned for its high reliability, low opening shock loads and tolerance to damage, making it the ideal round parachute for crewed Earth returns. Ringsail parachutes have been used as main parachutes for all American crewed capsule recoveries [and Shenzhou?]. They were also deemed exceptionally suitable for supersonic deceleration, although they have fallen out of favor

Solid cloth

Solid cloth parachutes consist of a single sheet of fabric, often divided into sections, or gores, for structural reinforcement. These are the simplest parachutes used in spaceflight. Their simplicity makes them cheap and relatively easy to produce.

Disk-Gap-Band

The parachute of the Perseverance rover was one of many DGBs tasked with landing spacecraft on Mars.

The Disk-Gap-Band (DGB) is a round solid-cloth parachute with [a gap in the cloth between the crown and skirt fabric]. The large gap increases porosity significantly, allowing excess air to escape. The DGB design is renowned for its balance in drag and stability while being relatively cheap and simple. Invented by Clinton W. Eckstrom in the late 1960s, it was initially designed for the recovery of high-altitude meteorological research payloads, and proved to be adept to extreme speeds and low air densities. NASA performed a series of high-altitude supersonic drop and flight tests to improve on its design for the Viking missions, for which it was eventually selected. The DGB is the prefered parachute for interplanetary atmospheric entries and has been used on all successful Mars landing missions. They remain an often-used type of parachute for high-altitude Earth recoveries, including some Long March rocket stages.

Disksail

The Disksail parachute was developed by JPL engineers as part of the LDSD program, which sought to develop more advanced deceleration systems for the Mars 2020 mission. It combined the properties of the established DGB and Ringsail types, aiming to produce a stronger parachute. This type of parachute was retired from development after a series of dissatisfactory tests.

Cruciform

Cruciform parachutes are solid-cloth parachutes that inflate in a shape akin to a cross or a box. Cross-shaped parachutes served as the main parachutes for the Hayabusa and Hayabusa2 asteroid sample return missions. A similar cross-shaped braking device was tested during the ExoBrake program by NASA.

Ballute

Main article: Ballute

Concept art of an inflatable heat shield

The ballute, a parachute that inflates into a balloon-like shape, is designed for high-speed decelerations in upper atmospheres. It is used as a high-speed, low-density drogue parachute, and has proven to be adept to speeds with higher Mach numbers than most other drogues because of the small and slim shape of trailing ballutes compared to other parachutes. They have been tested at analog speeds of up to Mach 10.

Certain types of ballute are integrated in the entry vehicle, expanding the surface area of the vehicle when inflated, and increasing air resistance even in near-space. Applications for ballutes as heat shields and aerocapture devices are being studied.

Ram-air/Parafoil

Main article: Parafoil

The parafoil of the X-38 test vehicle is the largest of its kind ever deployed.

As the most frequently employed parachute by sports and elite military parachutists today, parafoils are often worn by astronauts and other personnel involved in spaceflight training, recovery and emergencies. Additionally, they have been employed for uncrewed payloads where steerability of the parachute is deemed beneficial or necessary for mission success.

In many of these cases, programs using these parachutes for spacecraft failed, were cancelled, or opted for the use of round parachutes instead. NASA's X-38 spaceplane would have used the world's largest parafoil for recovery. It was also to be used as the main parachute for the Genesis sample return mission. Rocket Lab proposed to recover their Electron first stages with the help of ram-air parachutes, which would have been latched on a helicopter crane while mid-air.

Successful uses of the parafoil in spaceflight include the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy fairing half recovery systems, and [multiple Chinese attempts to recover rocket parts]

Rogallo wing

The rogallo wing It was proposed for the Gemini capsule's landing system, similar to the X-38.

Notable missions

The following space or near-space missions (in chronological order) are noted for having full or partial parachute malfunctions during recovery, or having made significant contributions to advancing parachute technologies.

Genesis

The capsule would have deployed a DGB drogue at an altitude of [33ish km] and Mach [1.4ish], and a ram-air main parachute at []. Both parachutes never deployed and the capsule crashed with a speed of [] onto []. This was the result of both redundant [] meters being installed upside down. The contents of the capsule, [particles], underwent a special cleaning procedure and were largely saved from contamination.

Huygens

NASA tasked the European Space Agency (ESA) do develop Huygens. The parachute system was developed by British company Vorticity [?]. It consisted of a series of DGB parachutes to better control descent rates, as the capsule had limited battery power. As of 2024, it is the furthest parachute descent and landing away from Earth.

SpaceX Demo-2

Further information: Development of the Commercial Crew Program and SpaceX Dragon 2

In 2014, SpaceX and Boeing were selected to deliver the successors to the Space Shuttle for NASA's human space transportation efforts. Both companies opted to develop capsules, prompting a return to parachute descents for American human spacecraft. Developing the Ringsail main parachutes for Crew Dragon and Starliner, respectively, proved to be a major challenge for both companies and their supplier Airborne Systems, undergoing many parachute test failures before crucial milestones.

In the case of SpaceX, a single-out drop test, in which one of the main parachutes [and a drogue?] was intentionally disabled, failed after the other three parachutes malfunctioned [upon deployment and inflation or during later phases]. This test took place shortly after the company's successful uncrewed test flight of Crew Dragon in March 2019. Previous failures prompted SpaceX to add a fourth main parachute to the cluster. The resulting Mark 3 parachute system (Mk3) was subjected to an intensive testing regime. Personnel performed 13[?] drop tests of these main parachutes over the course of seven days in October/November 2019. The Mk3 parachutes have the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any subsonic parachute ever developed for aerospace.

OSIRIS-REx

the [dimensions here] drogue parachute did not deploy because of electrical wiring faults. Instead, its connection to the main parachute was severed when intended to be fired by mortar at an altitude of (31? km) and a speed of Mach 1.4. Despite this malfunction, the main parachute was deployed safely at an altitude of (9,000 feet) and remained healthy until the capsule touched down on Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.