NASA's new Orion spacecraft returned to dry land in Southern California after a test flight that ended with a plunge into the Pacific Ocean.
A Navy ship, the USS Anchorage, delivered the capsule to Naval Base San Diego and unloaded the 11-foot-tall cone around 10 p.m. PST Monday.
San Diego news media and members of the city's science community, including San Diego Air & Space Museum Education Director Francis French, were on hand to welcome the space capsule.
French said the spacecraft's arrival was a "very touching moment" and its mission as a crucial moment for space exploration.
"We may see people born today making the first step on Mars," French said in an interview with KPBS Midday Edition.
Steven Snyder, the executive director of the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, said that scientific exploration is vital to solve long-term global problems.
“Exploration, science research, this is all about preparing for what’s to come, and we don't know what's to come," said Snyder on Midday Edition. "If we just focus on what happens today, we’re not going to be ready when tomorrow gets here.”
Orion made an unmanned flight Friday that carried it 3,600 miles above Earth to test the spacecraft's systems before it carries astronauts on deep space missions. During re-entry into the atmosphere, the spacecraft endured speeds of 20,000 mph and temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
It parachuted into the ocean about 600 miles southwest of San Diego, where the ship picked it up.
NASA recovery director Jeremy Graeber called the mission a "great success" and said the recovery from the ocean was "flawless."
"It was quite a thing to see, because it was challenging to get to that point, and to see the orchestration work exactly as we laid it out was priceless," he said.
NASA and contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. assisted in Orion's recovery.
The spacecraft may one day carry astronauts to Mars, but its next trip will be on a truck that will carry it back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, in time for Christmas.
The next Orion flight, also unmanned, is four years away, and crewed flights at least seven years away given present budget constraints. But the Orion team — spread across the country and on the ocean, is hoping Friday's triumphant splashdown will pick up the momentum.
During the flight test, all 11 parachutes deployed and onboard computers withstood the intense radiation of the Van Allen belts surrounding Earth. Everything meant to jettison away did so as Orion soared into space. It landed just a mile from its projected spot off Mexico's Baja Peninsula.
Data from 1,200 sensors inside and out of the crew module will be gathered to get the full picture of its performance.
