Author: Steven Siceloff

“Today was a great day for America,” said Flight Director Mike Sarafin from his console at Mission Control in Houston. “While this mission was unmanned, we were all aboard Orion.”

NASA TV will air a post-mission news conference at 1:30 p.m. EST.

 

The Orion spacecraft has been powered down following a flawless first flight test.

The recovery teams are within about 120 yards of the Orion crew module as it floats in the Pacific Ocean. 

Crews on small boats working from Navy recovery ships are gathering up the main chutes following Orion’s successful splashdown.

The Orion capsule landed upright on its base in a position called Stable 1 and remains in Stable 1 as it floats on the Pacific’s surface. The spacecraft’s systems performed perfectly throughout the mission including two passes through the Van Allen radiation belts and the heat of re-entry.

A U.S. Navy H-60 helicopter is flying out to Orion as the recovery process begins for the first Orion flight test.

Orion is bobbing on the surface of the Pacific Ocean now and a pair of U.S. Navy ships are moving in to retrieve it. 11:29 CST.

Orion is falling gently toward the Pacific Ocean surface under three parachutes that combined would cover a football field.

 

Orion made it through re-entry! The protective cover over the parachutes at the top of the spacecraft has jettisoned so now the parachutes can begin their deployment to slow Orion for splashdown. The cover will be lowered to ocean on small parachutes of its own and retrieved. Drogues deployed.