Not many companies know how to make parachutes alluring, but most companies aren't SpaceX. The California-based company has released a compilation video of its latest safety testing for its Crew Dragon parachute recovery system testing.

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In a comment along with the video, the California company says that it "is returning human spaceflight capabilities to the United States with one of the safest, most advanced systems ever built."

The Crew Dragon, which is meant to carry up to seven astronauts, has had its parachute system closely examined this year. In April 2019, Bill Gerstenmaier, then NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, answering a question from by Alabama Congressman Morris Brooks during a House subcommittee hearing, told Brooks that a then-recent test of the Crew Dragon's parachute system “was not satisfactory.”

“We did not get the results we wanted, but we learned some information that’s going to affect, potentially, future parachute designs,” Gerstenmaier said at the time. “I don’t see this as a negative. This is why we test. This is why we want to push things—this is a gift to us. We’ve gotten data that is unique that will help us design and understand if this is something that needs to be fixed or if it’s something that was a nuance of the test.”

In emails with Gizmodo at the time, confirmed that failed tests provide “industry leading insight, informs future testing, and allows us to develop an even safer system.”

What, if any, changes made to the parachute system are hard to say. In an email to Popular Mechanics, a company representative said that "We don’t have any additional information to share at this time, other than what’s included in the video." The company hopes to have the Crew Dragon ready for what's known as Demo-2, demonstration flights for NASA's first Commercial Crew launches on November 15, 2019.

While SpaceX has yet to have its parachute system pass NASA's rigorous testing, competitor Boeing's Starliner qualified in June.

Getting astronauts out of malfunctioning capsules is one of the most important safety mechanisms in spaceflight. Recently, NASA future Orion capsule was testing its launch abort system.

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David Grossman

David Grossman is a staff writer for PopularMechanics.com. He's previously written for The Verge, Rolling Stone, The New Republic and several other publications. He's based out of Brooklyn.