Orion Lands At Naval Base San Diego — 8 Years After First Capsule Recovery Tests

By Ken Stone, Times of San Diego

December 13, 2022

Eight years after the first of seven dry runs, moon-orbiting Orion is safely home at Naval Base San Diego.

The unmanned capsule splashed down Sunday morning off Baja California about 300 miles south of its original landing site off San Diego — moved because of an approaching storm.

Orion, set to ferry four astronauts to the moon in 2024, is expected to be offloaded from the transport ship USS Portland between 1 and 4 a.m. Thursday.

The Artemis 1 mission was hailed as a success after its 25 1/2-day mission covering 1.4 million miles — with wired-up mannequins aboard. (Two torsos named named Helga and Zohar led by Cmdr. Moonikin Campos.)

But like the Apollo missions of a half-century ago, Artemis is taking baby steps.

The first crew-module recovery tests were in 2014.

In February of that year, NASA and the Navy suspended recovery procedures for Orion after the team experienced issues with lines securing the test capsule inside the well deck of the USS San Diego.

But seven months later — in September 2014 — the USS Anchorage arrived at Naval Base San Diego after completing a recovery test.

In November 2018, the San Diego-based dock landing ship USS John P. Murtha completed its own test recovery of the Orion capsule — the seventh in the series. The USS Somerset earlier ran recovery tests.

At the time, a first manned mission was expected in 2021.

But unlike Apollo, the Artemis 1 mission splashdown was far closer to the U.S. mainland.

With the exception of Apollos 7 and 9 (in the Atlantic), the late 1960s and early 1970s landings were far west in the central or western Pacific.

Besides NASA and Navy crews, the first to see the Orion in the Portland’s well were media crews representing local and internationals outlets, including The Associated Press, Agence French Press, National Geographic and The Planetary Society.

Eventually, Orion will be transported back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where parts of the capsule will be salvaged for future missions.

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