YouTube: https://youtube.com/watch?v=T3Z8mAZ7q-8
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View count:265,793
Likes:19,513
Comments:254
Duration:00:40
Uploaded:2023-04-07
Last sync:2024-04-05 17:00

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MLA Full: "Parachutes are so hard! #shorts #science #SciShow." YouTube, uploaded by SciShow, 7 April 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3Z8mAZ7q-8.
MLA Inline: (SciShow, 2023)
APA Full: SciShow. (2023, April 7). Parachutes are so hard! #shorts #science #SciShow [Video]. YouTube. https://youtube.com/watch?v=T3Z8mAZ7q-8
APA Inline: (SciShow, 2023)
Chicago Full: SciShow, "Parachutes are so hard! #shorts #science #SciShow.", April 7, 2023, YouTube, 00:40,
https://youtube.com/watch?v=T3Z8mAZ7q-8.
This video was originally posted to TikTok in April 2021.

Spacecraft parachutes are surprisingly difficult to design. Also, April 12th is the anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's flight!

Hosted by: Alexis Dahl

Alexis Dahl: Writer
Kyle Nackers: Fact Checker
Savannah Geary: Editor, Associate Producer
Sarah Suta: Producer
Caitlin Hofmeister: Executive Producer
Hank Green: Executive Producer

Sources:
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/sts1/gagarin_anniversary.html
https://www.esa.int/About_Us/ESA_history/50_years_of_humans_in_space/The_flight_of_Vostok_1
https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/why-yuri-gagarin-remains-first-man-space-even-though-he-did-not-land-inside-his
https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2019-12-19/boeing-spacex-spacecraft-parachutes
https://www.space.com/spacex-crew-dragon-challenges-parachutes-abort-engines.html

Image Sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yuri_Gagarin_Capsule_and_space_suit.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo_15_descends_to_splashdown.jpg
The first time we sent someone to space in 1961... we didn't know how to land them.

When Yuri Gagarin was coming back from his trip around the Earth, he purposely ejected from his capsule and parachuted to the ground, because the Soviet space program did not know how to slow his capsule enough to make landing non-lethal. But really, it totally makes sense.

Spacecraft parachutes are surprisingly difficult. Spacecraft are so heavy and are going so fast, that if you open a parachute, it could snap or rip under the extreme forces... if it opens at all. Like, the Apollo parachutes took *years* to figure out, and companies still get tripped up on parachutes. Even with computers, the airflow around chute is so complicated, we still can't model it.

Today, we know enough to make it work, but in the 1960s, we kinda get the Soviet's plan.

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