Nov 2 1984
From The Space Library
NASA announced that larger main parachutes, designed to slow the solid-fuel rocket boosters' final rate of descent prior to impact into the ocean, would be part of the mission 51-A Space Shuttle flight scheduled for launch November 7 from KSC. The new parachutes would be 136 feet in diameter compared to previously used chutes of 115 feet in diameter. The larger chutes would reduce the velocity of the boosters at water impact from 88 feet per second, or 60 miles per hour, to 75 feet per second, or 51 miles per hour. The reduced velocity would relieve the structural loads on the boosters at impact by about 25%; thus reducing the amount of impact damage sustained by the boosters. Following launch and separation from the Space Shuttle, the boosters were recovered from the ocean, refurbished, and used on a later flight.
According to Keith Henson, booster recovery subsystem manager in the Shuttle Projects Office at MSFC, the larger chutes were tested during mission 41-D in August on the Space Shuttle's right booster. Beginning with mission 51-B, scheduled for January 1985, all future steel case boosters would have the larger chutes. Smaller main chutes would continue to be used on some Space Shuttle missions, including the 51-C mission in December and on missions where lighter-weight filament-wound booster motor segments were used. First use of those segments was planned for October 1985. Martin Marietta Corporation, Denver, Colo., under the direction of MSFC, designed the booster's deceleration system. Pioneer Parachute Company, Manchester, Conn., provided the parachutes. (MSFC Release 64-90)
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