Parachute deployment

[tssn1611]

I had radial-mount parachutes and drogue parachutes each in six-way symmetry on a recent craft. When I went to deploy them, one of the drogue 'chutes and then two of the main 'chutes failed to deploy with the message "Cannot deploy while stowed!" It did that, even when I right-clicked and tried to manually-deploy the 'chutes. I'm not sure the meaning of this message, particularly since most of the parachutes deployed fine. Is that a bug or a design flaw in the craft?

[Temstar]

It's a problem with the service bay, its detection for what is stowed and what's not is a bit wonky and too aggressive. If you open up the service bay then you'll be able to deploy all parachutes.

[FullMetalMachinist]

Yeah that 'design feature' happens to a lot of parts that are either inside a service bay (or cargo bay), or parts that are just a little too close and are flagged as being inside when they really aren't. 

Lots of discussion on that here. 

[tssn1611]

Ah, okay, that's what "stowed" means. Thanks, all!