Nasa’s Orion spacecraft completed its first voyage to space on Friday, travelling farther than any spacecraft designed for astronauts has been in more than 40 years and marking a major milestone for Nasa’s manned mission to Mars.
Orion soared into the morning sky at 07:05 EST (12:05 GMT), lifting off from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket. Approximately four and a half hours later, the empty Orion crew module safely splashed down into the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles southwest of San Diego.
Nasa provided real-time tracking of the capsule to the USS Anchorage, where a specially trained bridge team recovered the module form the ocean.
Dramatic pictures of the recovery operation have been released by Nasa and the US Navy:
