The parachutes on the Orion crew module are there to slow it down safely for splashdown after reentry, because the capsule comes back from space far too fast to land without them. NASA says the system also stabilizes Orion during descent and is built with redundancy so the crew can still land safely even if one parachute fails.

How they work

Orion uses a sequence of parachutes, not just one set for landing. First, drogue parachutes help slow and steady the module, then the main parachutes open to bring it down to about 20 mph or less for ocean landing.

Why so many

The extra parachutes are mainly about safety and reliability. NASA designed the system to handle failure scenarios, including cases where one drogue or one main parachute does not deploy as planned.

In plain terms

Think of them as the crew module’s final braking system. After the heat shield handles the intense reentry heating, the parachutes do the last job: turning a dangerous, high-speed return into a controlled ocean landing.

TL;DR: Orion’s parachutes are there to slow, stabilize, and safely land the crew module, with built-in backup capability in case part of the system fails.