Orion is NASA’s spacecraft for carrying astronauts on exploration missions to the Moon and beyond. When Orion returns to Earth from space, it will be slowed by parachutes before splashdown. Here, NASA’s recovery team and the U.S. Navy practice recovering a test Orion capsule from the ocean waters. Bonus: stunning views of the sunset in the Pacific off the coast of California!
This footage was captured on Nov. 1, 2018, during Underway Recovery Test-7 (URT-7) — one in a series of tests that NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems Recovery Team and the U.S. Navy are conducting: https://go.nasa.gov/2Ph6Mnr. These tests verify and validate procedures and hardware that will be used to recover the Orion spacecraft after it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean following deep space exploration missions.
NASA/Jamie Peer
Editor: NASA/Nasreen Alkhateeb
Download original footage: https://images.nasa.gov/details-KSC_20181101_MH_JBP_0002_BTA_Open_Water_Sunset_DRONE.html