STORY HIGHLIGHTS <\/p>\n
(CNN) -- With one 4-hour flight Friday, the new spacecraft series that NASA hopes will take astronauts to Mars passed its first test above Earth. <\/p>\n
NASA's Orion capsule -- part of America's bid to take crews beyond low-Earth orbit for the first time since the Apollo missions -- splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Friday morning after lapping the planet twice on an uncrewed test flight. <\/p>\n
The cone-shaped craft, slowed by a series of parachutes, settled onto the water at 8:29 a.m. PT (11:29 a.m. ET) about 600 miles southwest of San Diego. <\/p>\n
\"America has driven a golden spike as it crosses a bridge into the future,\" a NASA announcer said as the capsule bobbed on the ocean's surface during the agency's TV broadcast of the event. <\/p>\n
The flight took Orion farther from Earth than any craft designed for human flight since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972 -- a confidence builder for a program that NASA hopes will take its first human crew into space in 2021. <\/p>\n
Orion -- NASA's next giant leap <\/p>\n
Orion -- NASA's next giant leap <\/p>\n
Orion -- NASA's next giant leap <\/p>\n
Orion -- NASA's next giant leap <\/p>\n
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Original post:<\/p>\n
NASA's Orion splashes down<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" STORY HIGHLIGHTS (CNN) -- With one 4-hour flight Friday, the new spacecraft series that NASA hopes will take astronauts to Mars passed its first test above Earth. Continue reading