NASA tests parachute that might one day be used on Mars

According to NASA, the rocket carried the Advanced Supersonic Parachute Inflation Research Experiment (ASPIRE) from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The payload carrying the test parachute is expected to reach an altitude of 32 miles approximately two minutes into the flight.

The payload is a bullet-nosed, cylindrical structure holding a supersonic parachute, the parachute's deployment mechanism, and the test's high-definition instrumentation, including cameras to record data.

ASPIRE is managed by JPL, with support from NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, and Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

NASA's Sounding Rocket Program is based at Wallops. Orbital ATK in Dulles, Virginia, provides mission planning, engineering services and field operations through the NASA Sounding Rocket Operations Contract. NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington manages the sounding rocket program for the agency.

The ASPIRE mission launched at 12:19 this afternoon, successfully conducting a test of a parachute that one day may be used on Mars. More photos of this launch can be found on the NASA Wallops Instagram page. pic.twitter.com/RXjJ5aZ20r
— NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) March 31, 2018