The Orion Flight And Splashdown: Why Is It So Important? What Are People Saying About It?

After a series of failed launch attempts on Thursday, NASA’s Orion spacecraft was successfully launched on Friday, December 5, and returned safe to Earth after a 1 hour, 24-minute test flight and a “trial by fire” as it reentered the atmosphere, at temperatures close to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The launch occurred at 7:05 AM ET. The spacecraft reached low Earth orbit at 7:30AM, and apogee of 3,600 miles from the Earth. The “Splashdown” took place at 11:29 AM, in the Pacific Ocean, about 275 miles (443 kilometers) West of Baja California.

But, why is Orion so important? Well, NASA plans to use it to take astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid in the 2020s, and to Mars and its moons in the 2030s; NASA Administrator Charles Bolden described the event as “the beginning of the Mars era.”

So, now that you know what’s going on, wondering what people are saying about it? Here’s some official comments: