The Orion crew module is part of NASA's Constellation program slated to return astronauts to the moon by 2020.

Orion will carry astronauts into orbit atop the Ares I rocket to dock with an orbiting Earth departure stage previously launched by an Ares V rocket, and from there proceed to the moon. The space shuttles are scheduled to retire from service as NASA's workhorses in 2010. The failure occurred in one of 10 parachutes that make up the testing equipment, and not in the parachute recovery system itself. Some of the parachutes helped the mock-up get clear of the C-17 airplane which carried the test capsule up to a drop height of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters). The programmer chute that failed to inflate was designed to help two other stabilization chutes get the capsule into the right orientation, before releasing at a predetermined time to allow the parachute recovery system to take over.