Image of the Day
(http://bruce.org.uk/images/airborne.jpg)
If you want to stay in the space race you need good kit. One way to prove you have great kit that will survive big thumps and crash landings is to gooi the blerry expensive once-off prototype dinges out of a plane and hope the chutes open!
(http://bruce.org.uk/images/3chutes.jpg)
And voila! The chutes open and the expensive dinges lands softly back on terra firma.
Phew!
Courtesy of NASA