Photos: Delta 4-Heavy launch gallery

A recovery team stationed in the Pacific Ocean west of Baja California secured NASA’s Orion spacecraft and winched it into the flooded well deck of a U.S. Navy transport ship after the capsule splashed down into the sea to wrap up a successful four-and-a-half hour test flight.

Multiple different camera angles of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket blasting off with NASA’s Orion capsule for Exploration Flight Test No. 1 on Dec. 5

View photos from the Delta 4 launch pad on the day before liftoff with NASA’s first space-bound Orion capsule.