Orion Returns from Road Trip: What’s Next for ‘America’s Spacecraft’

NASA(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — After a trip to space, a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean and a cross-country road trip, the Orion spacecraft is finally back home in Florida.

Nicknamed “America’s spacecraft,” Orion completed the final installment of its epic maiden voyage when it arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Thursday.

The capsule could one day ferry as many as four astronauts to deep space, however, engineers are currently focused on conducting a thorough post-mission analysis to refine Orion’s design.

This entails removing the back shell of the spacecraft so engineers can inspect the nuts and bolts of Orion, including its cabling, fluid lines, propulsion system and avionics boxes, according to NASA.

Sample pieces of the heat shield, which had to endure temperatures as high as 20,000 degrees Fahrenheit, were already sent to a laboratory, according to NASA, where they will be carefully examined by scientists.

Orion blasted off on an unmanned test mission earlier this month, where it was put through a series of stress tests, including traveling through temperatures twice as hot as molten lava before it triumphantly splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.

The spacecraft’s next unmanned flight is slated for 2018.

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