NASA's Orion Returns to Land in San Diego Aboard USS Anchorage - NBC 7 San Diego

San Diego-based USS Anchorage arrived in San Diego Monday carrying the Orion spacecraft back to U.S. soil.

NASA's new spacecraft test mission made a successful splashdown in the Pacific Ocean Friday.

The Anchorage took part in a four-and-a-half-hour recovery process Friday, Navy spokeswoman Lt. Chelsea Irish said.

The spacecraft will be at Naval Base San Diego before it's sent to a NASA location.

Irish said six Navy units participated in the recovery.

She adds an amphibious ship like USS Anchorage was picked for a number of reasons. Amphibious ships have a well deck, strong radar to track the capsule and small boats to guide the recovery process.

Entities 0 Name: NASA Count: 2 1 Name: Navy Count: 2 2 Name: Pacific Ocean Count: 1 3 Name: Anchorage Count: 1 4 Name: U.S. Count: 1 5 Name: San Diego Count: 1 6 Name: Orion Count: 1 7 Name: Naval Base San Diego Count: 1 8 Name: Chelsea Irish Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1AU8DNS Title: The Navy rescued Orion from the ocean and is bringing it home to NASA Description: After its first launch attempt was delayed and eventually aborted last Thursday, NASA's Orion spacecraft finally left Earth on Friday for Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) before successfully splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. Despite the initial troubles, the capsule - which could eventually take humans to both an asteroid or the surface of Mars - passed this first major test with flying colors.