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[i]Lueders emphasized that, in studying this issue, NASA had not convened any kind of formal mishap review. "This is just us assessing and doing our normal job of checking out the hardware," she said. This analysis of the parachutes and flight data are ongoing as SpaceX and NASA continue to work toward an April 15 launch of the Crew-4 mission. The flight will use a new Dragon spacecraft, which is nearly completed at the company's factory in Hawthorne. A second stage for the mission is also in its final build. The Falcon 9 first stage for Crew-4, which has flown three times previously, is already in process at the company's launch facilities in Florida. Stich noted that Crew Dragon is the first human spacecraft to use four main parachutes, instead of three, during its return trip. NASA has seen the delayed inflation of one parachute on some previous cargo flights and in tests, and this may simply be a feature of a four-parachute system. What NASA and SpaceX engineers think is happening is that three parachutes ingest air relatively quickly, but the fourth chute is "shaded" a little bit and starved for air. After the other chutes fully inflate, this fourth parachute does, too.[/i]
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