A test of the spacecraft due to replace the shuttle and take humans back to the moon has crashed after its landing parachutes failed.

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Nasa officials were left embarrassed after the parachutes designed to slow down the capsule carrying the Orion crew back to earth failed to open properly during a mock landing.

Instead of touching down gently in the Arizona desert, the 25 tonne spacecraft, which was an empty replica of the real thing, plummeted 25,000 feet before smashing into the ground in a cloud of dust.

The failure has raised questions among critics in the space industry about whether the Orion spacecraft is a suitable replacement for the shuttle, which the US space agency plans to retire from use in 2010.