Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) finally made its successful re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere after a dramatic test flight that hovered around the Earth twice in nearly 4.5 hours. The spacecraft made a fiery re-entry with 32,000 km/h enduring temperature of 4,000°F. This happens to be one of the fastest NASA capsule missions after the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972.
This time, the space vehicle was equipped with cameras to get an eye view of the entire mission. After all, in the near future, somewhere around 2030s the same spacecraft would shuttle humans to Mars.
The capsule successfully covered 5,800 km distance, which is 15 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station (ISS). This is the second most ambitious mission by NASA, where first being Apollo 17, that happened around more than four decades ago. Here are some of the images captured by world’s most powerful rocket during its successful flight to deep space:
1) First step towards Mars
2) Blasting off
3) Boosters separating
4) An astronaut’s eye view as it began a slow roll to regulate temperatures during its orbit
5) Climbing into orbit
6) Earth during re-entry
7) Rapid re-entry into the atmosphere at speeds close to 32,000km/h
8) Three main parachutes brought Orion safely back to Earth
9) From 20,000 mph to zero
10) Orion craft in orbit
Source: NASA Orion
