NASA's new deep space capsule, Orion, has splashed down in the Pacific Ocean following a successful test flight.
Earlier today it blasted off atop a rocket on its first test flight before carrying humans to an asteroid or Mars in the coming years.
The unmanned spacecraft lit up the skies as it launched from Cape Canaveral at 12.05pm Irish atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket.
Three hours later, it reached peak altitude of 5,800km above the planet, a prelude to the most challenging part of the flight, a 32,000km/h dive back into the atmosphere.
Orion survived a searing plunge through the atmosphere, heating up to 2,200 degrees Celsius - twice as hot as molten lava - and experiencing gravitational forces eight times stronger than Earth's.
Orion on its way down. Chutes out. pic.twitter.com/szz8hvmLGk
— Will Goodbody (@willgoodbody) December 5, 2014The craft hit the water at 4.29pm Irish time, after around four and a half hours in space.
During that time it carried out two orbits of the Earth and then boosted out into deep space for a period.
All systems appear to have functioned well during the flight.
The capsule will now be recovered by the US Navy and returned to NASA for analysis.
The launch marked the first of a US spacecraft meant to carry people into deep space since the Apollo missions that brought men to the Moon more than four decades ago.
Speaking ahead of the launch NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said: "I think it's a big day for the world, for people who know and like space."
Mr Bolden watched on at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station as the Orion spacecraft splashed down safely in the Pacific Ocean.
With no American vehicle to send humans to space since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, some at NASA said the Orion launch has re-energised the US space program, long constrained by budget cuts and forced to rely on costly rides aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft to reach the International Space Station in low-Earth orbit.
Potential future missions for Orion, which is designed to fit four people at a time, include a mission to an asteroid and a journey to Mars by the 2030s.
