Experimental failure of the spacecraft landing system * The flying saucer crashed into the sea

The parachute did not open - the device, designed to simulate the landing of a large spacecraft on Mars, crashed not far from the shores of Hawaii

The American space agency failed in the first test of the innovative system for landing spacecraft. The huge parachute that was supposed to stop the experimental facility did not open, and the facility - resembling a flying saucer - crashed into the ocean not far from the coast of Hawaii.

The new system includes a balloon-like device in the shape of a giant ring that inflates around the spacecraft and is supposed to slow its fall after entering the atmosphere. In the next step, a huge parachute - more than 30 m in diameter - should open and stop the fall. In the test tonight (Sunday), the test facility was launched to a height of tens of kilometers using huge helium balloons, launched to the limit of space using a rocket engine, and plummeted in free fall to a speed of more than 2,500 km/h. The annular balloon inflated as it was, but the parachute - as mentioned - did not open.

The American space agency says that they will draw lessons from the failure, in preparation for the next experiments planned soon in the system, in the development of which about 150 million dollars were invested. This landing system is much lighter than the existing models, and NASA hopes that it will make it possible to lower the launch costs of spacecraft (the launch cost is derived from the weight of the spacecraft) and to successfully land even very large spacecraft. The space agency intends to install the system first in unmanned spacecraft that are supposed to land on Mars, and it is possible that in the future it will also be used to land spacecraft on Earth.