The spacecraft continued to descend on the drogue chute. The frustum is then pulled away from the SRB by the drogue chute. Three chutes were sequentially deployed (a Pilot Chute, a Drogue Chute and the Main Chute). A drogue chute was used to reduce the opening force required. The drogue chute enabled airplanes to land safely on smaller ice-floes. The drogue chute is used to pull a cluster of larger extraction chutes out.