A parachute on a SpaceX cargo vehicle didn’t open as quickly as expected as the spacecraft descended from orbit last month, the second mission in a row for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in which the issue has emerged, officials said.
In late January, when a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying cargo was returning to Earth from the International Space Station, one of the vehicle’s four main parachutes lagged behind the other three in deploying by about a minute, said
Steve Stich,
a NASA program manager.
A main parachute similarly lagged behind the other three when SpaceX brought astronauts back to Earth from the space station in November in a splashdown landing. The issue has occurred on other SpaceX cargo runs too, Mr. Stich said.
Officials said that the Dragon vehicle…
