posted 12-20-2021 06:20 PM               

Please use this topic to discuss SpaceX's twenty-fourth Dragon cargo flight (CRS-24) to the International Space Station under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract.

posted 02-02-2022 11:08 AM               

NASA confirmed Feb. 2 that the cargo Dragon spacecraft that splashed down off the Florida coast Jan. 24, concluding the CRS-24 space station resupply mission, suffered a delayed opening of one of its four main parachutes but still allowed the capsule to safely land.

"During the return of the SpaceX CRS-24 mission, teams observed a single main parachute that lagged during inflation like the return of the Crew-2 mission," agency spokesman Josh Finch said in a statement to SpaceNews. "The vertical descent rate of both flights was within the system design margins at splashdown, and all four main parachutes fully opened prior to splashdown on both missions."

The Crew-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft, which splashed down Nov. 8, also had a parachute that was slow to open. NASA and SpaceX quickly cleared the Crew-3 mission to launch Nov. 10 after concluding that the parachute issue did not pose a safety risk. ...

"As partners, NASA and SpaceX jointly review the imagery data and perform physical inspection of the drogue and main parachutes after flight. The inflation model also continues to be updated to better characterize and understand margins and splashdown conditions," Finch said in the statement. "This review of flight data and parachute performance models will be completed prior to the launch of the Crew-4 mission and the return of Crew-3 astronauts from the International Space Station."

NASA had not previously disclosed the parachute issue involving the CRS-24 mission, but one of the agency's leaders hinted at it last week. "We've seen a couple of delayed parachute delays now on the fourth chute with cargo vehicles returning and one crew vehicle," NASA Associate Administrator Bob Cabana said during a "safety stand-down" event at NASA Headquarters Jan. 27, the agency's Day of Remembrance.

posted 02-04-2022 04:53 PM               

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.