pillownaut's video: NASA Langley Project SPLASH Orion Crash Tests

NASA Langley Project SPLASH! Seriously, the most laughter I've ever heard at a NASA presentation! Richard Boitnott, 7-year veteran of the Structual Dynamics Branch, shows awesome and sometimes hilarious films of Orion space capsule drop-testing at the NASA Langley Landing & Impact Research Facility. Watch him humorously narrate dry-lake bed landings, animal mishaps, NASCAR comparison crashes, airbag blowouts, sand & honeycomb deceleration, slow-motion impacts from different angles, water landings (the first in a toddler wading pool!), and finally, a time-lapsed video of the construction of the Hydro Impact Basin used for advanced capsule water landings. Amazing space craft splashes!! The capsule used in the final drops was the same one we saw later in the day at the Norfolk Naval Air Station, being pulled from the ocean into the USS Arlington, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. Of course, this "Gantry" is also the same site where all 24 Apollo astronauts trained to land on the moon, and is now a National Historical Landmark. Sponsored by the sister-websites: http://pillownaut.blogspot.com/ http://pillownaut.com/