Orion, the first spacecraft after the 1960s Apollo mission, roared into the sky Friday morning in Florida.
"Two, one, and liftoff at dawn! The dawn of Orion and a new era of American space exploration!"
The unmanned spacecraft accomplished a number of milestones during a four-hour-twenty-minute flight that orbited around the earth twice before it splashed down in the Pacific.
The test flight was so perfect and meaningful that Mike Hawes, program manager at Lockheed Martin, Orion's manufacturer, almost lost his words.
"When we first started at JSC, we started with the Apollo guys still there. So we've kind now finally done something for the first time for our generation. It's a good."
Initial data also proved the mission is a great success, according to William Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Directorate.
"The first look looks really good from a data stand point. But we'll dig through all the data and make sure that everything is there. We'll definite learn something from this flight. That's why it's a test flight that will really help us as we take those next steps into the solar system with humans."
In the next few weeks, the capsule will be moved from west coast back to Florida before scientists can get their hands on the enormous data collected by its 12 hundred sensors.
The data are expected to provide parameters for the designs of future spacecraft and megarocket. NASA plans to build a manned capsule in 2021 and land on Mars in 2030.
For CRI, I'm Xiaohong.
