WEBVTT

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Music.

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How does the Space Shuttle use parachutes?

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Essentially, you'll find three places on the Space Shuttle where we use parachutes. The first one is on the backs of the astronauts.

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The second one is on the back end of the orbiter, and the third is on the Solid Rocket Boosters.

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First, let's talk about the astronauts. You know those long, orange launch and entry suits that they wear?

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Well, on the back is a parachute. Those are designed for an emergency bailout that they could do

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probably below 30,000 feet with the orbiter in some kind of a controlled glide.

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You see them putting those on right before they go into the orbiter, while they're in the White Room there at the very last thing.

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Now in the back end of the orbiter, you've probably seen this when it comes in to land, after it rolls a little while,

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then it deploys a very large parachute. That is to help slow it down. It's one of the things that makes the orbiter safer

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and makes it easier for us to land here at Kennedy Space Center.

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The third place where you'll find parachutes is on the Solid Rocket Boosters. Now, after they have done their job of boosting for about two minutes,

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they continue on in a giant arc. Finally, about 149 miles out to sea, a small drove chute will deploy, which will help stabilize it.

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Another small chute will come out, slow it down a little bit, and then three large main parachutes will come up.

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Each one of those main parachutes by themselves weighs one ton. So you're looking at three tons of parachute

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as it lowers the Solid Rocket Booster down into the ocean.

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And that's how we use parachutes on the Space Shuttle.

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Music.

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