USS Anchorage – Spaceflight Now

Photos: Orion spaceship unloaded from USS Anchorage

December 10, 2014 Stephen Clark

Fresh home from a high-flying test flight Friday that took it 3,600 miles above Earth, NASA’s Orion spacecraft was pulled off a U.S. Navy recovery ship Monday night for initial inspections before a cross-country trip to its home base in Florida.

Orion spacecraft back on land

December 9, 2014 Stephen Clark

A U.S. Navy transport ship carrying NASA’s first space-worthy Orion capsule arrived Monday in San Diego, where ground crews will offload the spacecraft for shipment back to its home port at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Photos: Orion capsule plucked from the Pacific

December 8, 2014 Stephen Clark

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.