SpaceX Acquires Parachute Supplier
DannyB writes:
SpaceX acquires parachute supplier
A federal bankruptcy court in Florida approved an agreement Nov. 22 whereby SpaceX would acquire Pioneer Aerospace for $2.2 million. The deal was first reported by The Information.
[....] Connecticut-based Pioneer has developed parachutes for space and other applications for decades. That work ranged from parafoils developed in the 1960s for potential use on Gemini spacecraft to parachutes flown on Mars lander missions and the OSIRIS-REx sample return capsule. It also supplied drogue chutes for SpaceX's Crew Dragon and its cargo variant.
[....] One industry source, speaking on background, said the deal was likely an effort to preserve SpaceX's supply chain, speculating that the cost to acquire Pioneer out of bankruptcy may have been less than what SpaceX would have spent on finding a new drogue chute supplier and requalifying that component for use on crewed missions.
Both SpaceX and Boeing, the other company with a NASA commercial crew contract, struggled to develop parachutes for their spacecraft, suffering test setbacks at times. Even after entering service, there were incidents such as "lagging" parachutes that opened later than expected but did not jeopardize safety.
"Parachutes turned out to be way harder than we thought," said Phil McAlister, director of the commercial spaceflight division at NASA Headquarters [....]
Will Boeing have to pull strings to get parachutes from Pioneer Aerospace, or will their efforts fall flat?
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