Video: Orion EFT-1 test flight ends with a splashdown in the Pacific

NASA’s inaugural Orion spaceship has set sail on a two-orbit, four-hour shakedown cruise around the Earth, leaving port atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket and its incandescent power at 7:05 a.m. EST on Dec. 5.

The mobile service tower is retracted from the Delta 4-Heavy rocket and Orion spacecraft for Exploration Flight Test 1.

John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, speaks about the EFT-1 test flight and science opportunities made possible by the Orion capsule and its Space Launch System rocket.