NASA's Orion Spacecraft Back In Florida After Test Flight
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CAPE CANAVERAL (CBSMiami/AP) — The Orion spacecraft is back home after traveling into space and then across the country.
NASA's capsule arrived back at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday. It rocketed into orbit December 5th, traveling 3,600 miles into space on an unmanned test flight that proved to be a great success. NASA plans to use future models to help get astronauts to Mars in coming decades.
Orion parachuted into the Pacific. After coming ashore at San Diego, the spacecraft was hauled by truck across the country.
Engineers will now begin the lengthy process of inspecting the vessel and reviewing all the data collected by sensors. The capsule was struck by micrometeoroids, but that was anticipated.
It will be 2018 before another Orion flies. This one will be reused in a launch abort test.
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