Credit: NASA
According to the 13 August 1964 issue of Flight International NASA test pilot E. P. Hetzel is trying out the paraglider system of spacecraft recovery, then under consideration for Project Gemini flights, in this photo
It is the first manned test of the recovery system at what became NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California
More such reports about the development of American, and Soviet, manned spaceflight systems can be found in the Flight archive, a completely free to access archive of every issue ever published since Flight's inception in 1909
on August 24, 2008 6:28 PM | Reply
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a simpler, smaller, lighter, safer, cheaper, more modern and more accurate version of this old Gemini's paraglider system could be MY lake-landing (or runway-landing, just adding four small wheels) electric-motors-driven propellers Orion:
http://www.ghostnasa.com/posts/030orionlakelanding.html
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on March 13, 2009 3:44 AM | Reply
I worked on these for NAA in Compton and at Edwards from 1963 thru 1966. Windsheer kills these kites
on March 13, 2009 9:04 AM | Reply
Interesting, thanks for the comment Steve. I am always happy to hear from people who have seen much of the US space programme. One wonders why they considered it for the X-38/CRV? I look forward to any other insights you can give.