The Orion mission has been a complete success. NASA's
press release said it all:
It was just the kind of mission NASA hoped for, all the while knowing
that the first mission by any spacecraft often turns up significant
glitches. That was not the case this time though. The cone-shaped Orion
held up to all the pressures of launch and ascent into orbit, then made
two passes through the high radiation of the Van Allen belts before
facing the searing plunge into Earth's atmosphere and splashing down
under three billowing parachutes.
Watching the spacecraft descend through the sky over the Pacific
Ocean in real time via an unmanned aircraft system dispatched from
NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California, Orion managers
and NASA's senior leadership seemed to hold their breath until the first
drogue parachutes deployed from the nose of Orion. Gasps turned quickly
to applause and hugs moments later when the huge main parachutes opened
to slow the capsule to a gentle 20 mph splashdown 270 miles west of
Baja California.
Here is a
NASA video showing the countdown, launch, and ascent.
