CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) NASAs newest space vehicle, Orion, accomplished its first test flight with precision and pizazz Friday, shooting more than 3,600 miles out from Earth for a hyperfast, hot return not seen since the Apollo moon shots.

For a space agency still feeling the loss of its shuttles, the four-hour voyage opened a new era of human space exploration, with Mars as the plum. It even brought some rocket engineers to tears.

Theres your new spacecraft, America, Mission Controls Rob Navias said as the unmanned Orion capsule came in for a Pacific splashdown after two orbits of Earth.

NASA is counting on future Orions to carry astronauts out into the solar system, to Mars and beyond.

The next Orion flight, also unmanned, is four years off, and crewed flights at least seven years away given present budget constraints. But the Orion team spread across the country and out in the ocean, is hoping Fridays triumphant splashdown will pick up the momentum.

We challenged our best and brightest to continue to lead in space, lead flight director Mike Sarafin said with emotion as he signed off from Mission Control in Houston. While this was an unmanned mission, we were all on board Orion.

W. Michael Hawes, a former NASA official who now leads the Orion program for prime contractor Lockheed Martin Corp., choked up as he recalled the pre-shuttle days.

We started with all the Apollo guys still there. So weve kind of now finally done something for the first time for our generation, he said, pausing for composure. Its a good thing.

Orion splashed down 270 miles off Mexicos Baja peninsula, just a mile from the projected spot a bulls-eye according to NASA. Navy ships quickly moved in to transport the crew module 600 miles to San Diego, where it was expected Monday. From there, it will be loaded onto a truck and returned to Cape Canaveral just in time for Christmas.

Preliminary test reports were encouraging: Not only did the capsule arrive intact, all eight parachutes deployed and onboard computers withstood the intense radiation of the Van Allen belts surrounding Earth. Whats more, everything meant to jettison away did so as Orion soared into space.

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NASA space vehicle has successful test flight