BEFORE ANY MISSION takes place, NASA conducts a vast number of tests to prepare it for any eventuality.
Part of this involves testing its spacecrafts (and other vehicles) to see if they’ll survive a crash, and it has amassed a lot of footage since then.
The video, which was captured at NASA’s Landing Impact and Research Facility, shows a montage of different crash tests from the facility’s 50-year history.
Originally built in 1965 to test the lunar landing module, the facility includes a 240-foot metal gantry which drops aircrafts and spacecrafts onto dirt or a deep pool, either a straight drop or from an angle to help simulate different crashes.
So you will see footage like this…
And this…
And a bit of this.
While it’s fun to watch, it gives a snapshot into the amount of work that’s required, not only when designing the crafts themselves but creating the conditions needed to properly test them.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say