By James Dornbrook
WireCo World Group provided specially designed steel rope riser cables for the parachutes that help bring NASA’s new Orion Space Capsule safely back to Earth last week.
The new Orion Space Capsule is part of an effort by NASA to take humans farther into space than ever before. The space capsule can be placed on top of NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS) which will be the largest rocket in the world, capable of delivering humans to Mars or an asteroid. NASA conducted a test flight for the new Orion Space Capsule on Friday, and after making two orbits of the Earth, it reentered the atmosphere and was brought to a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Guiding it to a safe landing were parachutes tethered to the capsule by steel ropes produced by Kansas City-based WireCo.
Airborne Systems of North America contacted WireCo in 2010 to design the strong and lightweight rope, which possess more abrasion-resistance than ever seen before. The parachute cables were designed by WireCo engineers Bambad Pourladian, Kyle Bowland and Tim Klein. The cables were manufactured and tested in Missouri.
“We are proud to be a part of this important project that will affect the future of space exploration,” WireCo Vice President Richard Humiston said in a release. “WireCo has a long history dating back to the 1960s and 1970s when we supplied parachute cables to NASA for the Apollo program.”
James reports about banking, financial services, manufacturing and sports business.
