spacetoday.net: NASA and SpaceX looking into Dragon parachute issue

Posted: Sun, Feb 6, 2022, 12:19 PM ET (1719 GMT)
A parachute on a cargo Dragon spacecraft failed to open on time when it splashed down last month, the second time that's happened. NASA says one of four parachutes on the cargo Dragon spacecraft opened later than the other three during the CRS-24 splashdown Jan. 24. That's similar to the splashdown of the Crew-2 Crew Dragon spacecraft in November. The lagging parachutes opened fully in both cases, and the capsules splashed down safely. NASA and SpaceX are looking into the incident and plan to complete a review of data before the launch of the Crew-4 mission in April and later return of the Crew-3 Crew Dragon spacecraft. Officials said at a briefing Friday they think the lagging parachute might be linked to the aerodynamics of the four-parachute system and that they don't believe it poses a safety concern.