X-38 Recovery Parafoil

The X-38 space vehicle is an emergency vehicle for the International Space Station (ISS). It may one day carry 7-8 people from the ISS back to Earth. After the X-38 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere, a large parafoil is deployed to slow it's descent.

A very large parafoil is under development and testing by NASA. The parafoil has a surface area of 7,500 square feet. The nominal payload weight is 15,000 pounds and touchdown descent rate is 8 ft/sec. Wing loading is 2.0.

X-38 Drop Reefing is done using cutters on restricting lines. Watch the deployment of the parafoil during a test drop and see the reefing in action. MPEG (1.7 MB)

X-38 before landing The second flight test was conducted on March 5, 1999 at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards CA. The test vehicle was released from a B-52 at an altitude of 30,000 feet. The vehicle descended for approximately 12 seconds before the parafoil was deployed. The parafoil was then guided to its landing point. Watch the landing. (MPEG 1 MB)

Check back for specifications of the X-38 Recovery Parafoil

Photos and movies from NASA.

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