14 DAY TRIAL // Officials from the Boeing Company have just released a new image of the CST-100 spacecraft the corporation is developing under a contract with the American space agency. This view of the vehicle was captured during recent parachute testing.
The latest such test occurred on May 2, and marked the second successful deployment of the three-parachute system that will slow down the CST-100 in Earth's atmosphere, after reentry. The vehicle's name is an acronym for Crew Space Transportation (CST).
Boeing is developing it to allow NASA astronauts access to the International Space Station (ISS) and low-Earth orbit (LEO) targets on American-built spacecraft. At this point, the space agency is relying on the Russian Federal Space Agency to send both astronauts and cargo to space.
The recent parachute test was carried out above the Delmar Dry Lake Bed near Alamo, Nevada. A helicopter flew the CST-100 to an altitude of around 10,000 feet (3,000 meters), and then dropped it. Everything went according to plan, and the spacecraft settled on the ground smoothly, atop six airbags.