Initial reviews of the data returned during the Ares I-X test flight seem to indicate that the booster performed as expected. However, one of the three huge parachutes failed to open and a second partially deflated during the spent booster's descent to the Atlantic Ocean.
"There was an indication that we had a parachute problem," said Ares I-X mission manager Bob Ess on Friday. "Afterward, when we saw the parachutes we assumed, properly, that [the rocket] must have hit harder than it should have."
The parachutes, flying for the first time, were designed for NASA's planned Ares I rocket which is 15 percent lighter than the Ares I-X test booster.
"No one is concerned about it," Ess said. "In fact, the parachute guys were ecstatic, was their words, (about) the information they got from this flight. They really wanted to test this out."
Damage to the booster is not a concern, as NASA has no plans to reuse the spent rocket which was only a test version of the actual Ares I rocket configuration.
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