The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) spacecraft, Orion, has returned to Naval Base San Diego this Tuesday morning after landing in Baja Californian coasts on Sunday.

Equipment carried this spacecraft onto the USS Portland after it landed on neighboring coasts. It should be noted that Orion was going to land in San Diego, but NASA decided to change its landing route, near Isla Guadalupe, after assessing the region’s weather.

Splashdown.

After traveling 1.4 million miles through space, orbiting the Moon, and collecting data that will prepare us to send astronauts on future #Artemis missions, the @NASA_Orion spacecraft is home. pic.twitter.com/ORxCtGa9v7

— NASA (@NASA) December 11, 2022

Orion had a test flight of 25 days where it traveled 2.1 million kilometers around the moon. The Artemis I mission ended when it hit the atmosphere at Mach 32, or 32 times the speed of sound, and withstanding over 2,500°C (4532°F).

This test flight had a cost of $4 billion dollars with no passengers on board. One of NASA’s objectives was to recover the spacecraft intact after the 25-day flight as it used a new thermal shield that has never been used in any other spaceflight.

On their Twitter account, NASA revealed one of Orion’s views before returning to Earth and stated the following: “POV: You're inside the @NASA_Orion spacecraft, looking through the docking hatch, and you're on your way home.”

POV: You're inside the @NASA_Orion spacecraft, looking through the docking hatch, and you're on your way home. #Artemis pic.twitter.com/j1oWNFTH54

— NASA (@NASA) December 11, 2022