Pioneer Aerospace Corporation is one of the world's largest aerodynamic deceleration manufacturers. Pioneer has designed and manufactured parachute

Parachute

A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...

s and parafoil

Parafoil

A parafoil is a nonrigid airfoil with an aerodynamic cell structure which is inflated by the wind. Ram-air inflation forces the parafoil into a classic wing cross-section. Parafoils are most commonly constructed out of ripstop nylon....

s for numerous NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 missions.

History

Pioneer Aerospace Corporation began production in 1938. In 1988, Pioneer become a part of Zodiac's Aerosafety Systems Group. Pioneer's main factory and distribution centers are located in Columbia, Mississippi

Columbia, Mississippi

Columbia is a city in Marion County, Mississippi, United States, which was formed six years before Mississippi was admitted to statehood. Columbia was named for Columbia, South Carolina, from which many of the early settlers had migrated. The population was 6,603 as of the 2000 census. It is the...

 and South Windsor, Connecticut

South Windsor, Connecticut

-History:In 1659, Thomas Burnham purchased the tract of land now covered by the towns of South Windsor and East Hartford from Tantinomo, chief sachem of the Podunk Indians. Burnham lived on the land and later willed it to his nine children...

. The company is one of the largest aerodynamic deceleration manufacturers in the world.

NASA

Pioneer Aerospace Corporation has designed and manufactured recovery systems for numerous NASA missions, including: the Galileo probe, the Space Shuttle

Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...

, the Mars Pathfinder missions

Mars Pathfinder

Mars Pathfinder was an American spacecraft that landed a base station with roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight wheeled robotic rover named Sojourner.Launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a...

, the Genesis solar-sample mission

Genesis (spacecraft)

The Genesis spacecraft was a NASA sample return probe which collected a sample of solar wind and returned it to Earth for analysis. It was the first NASA sample return mission to return material since the Apollo Program, and the first to return material from beyond the orbit of the Moon...

, the Stardust Comet Intercept Probe

Stardust (spacecraft)

Stardust is a 300-kilogram robotic space probe launched by NASA on February 7, 1999 to study the asteroid 5535 Annefrank and collect samples from the coma of comet Wild 2. The primary mission was completed January 15, 2006, when the sample return capsule returned to Earth...

, and the Mars Exploration Rover

Mars Exploration Rover

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars...

s. In 1999, Pioneer manufactured, at the time, the world's largest parafoil (7,500 square ft.) for the X-38 Crew Return Vehicle

X-38 Crew Return Vehicle

|- Trivia :* The Oakland-based, Space-themed punk/rockabilly band, The Phenomenauts, released a song called "Where is the X-38?" openly criticizing the cancellation of the X-38 project. The song was released on their second album, Re-Entry, in 2004....

, an emergency return capsule for the crew of the International Space Station

International Space Station

The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...

.