Second Generation Airbag Landing System for the Orion Crew Module

In support of NASA Langley Research Center’s (LaRC) second phase of development of the Orion land landing system, ILC Dover has designed and built an impact attenuating airbag landing system. This system incorporates lessons learned from the first generation design and testing. Full-scale drop tests using a test article representative of the Orion Crew Module (CM) were performed to investigate the landing system dynamics. The ILC Dover second generation design used six impact attenuation airbag sets placed around the base of the CM. Each airbag set consisted of an outer main bag and an inner anti-bottoming (AB) bag. The primary design change from the first generation airbag landing system was a shift to a design where the airbag set is not directly attached to the crew module. Instead, the bags are held in position by a webbing restraint assembly. This paper will present the overall design of ILC Dover’s second generation impact attenuating airbag system and a summary of preliminary drop test results.