SpaceX had a problem during a parachute test in April

Enlarge / SpaceX performs its fourteenth overall parachute test supporting Crew Dragon development in the Mojave Desert in March 2018. (credit: NASA)

SpaceX had a problem during a test of its Crew Dragon parachute system in April, NASA confirmed on Wednesday. "The test was not satisfactory," said NASA's chief of human spaceflight, Bill Gerstenmaier, at a House subcommittee hearing. "We did not get the results we wanted. The parachutes did not work as designed."

The test appears to have occurred last month at Delamar Dry Lake in Nevada, where SpaceX was conducting one of dozens of drop tests it intends to perform to demonstrate the safety of its Crew Dragon spacecraft. This was a "single-out" test in which one of Dragon's four parachutes intentionally failed before the test. "The three remaining chutes did not operate properly," Gerstenmaier said.

The admission came during questions from an Alabama Representative, Mo Brooks, who has been critical of the new space company because its advances in rocket technology threaten the Marshall Space Flight Center, which he represents.

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