What's Next For Orion: Cross Country Road Trip

After a flawless test flight, Orion is back on land in San Diego.

ByABC News

December 9, 2014, 10:51 AM

The Orion spacecraft off-loads from the well deck of the USS Anchorage, Dec. 8, 2014.
NASA

 -- Orion's maiden voyage was picture perfect, but the spacecraft isn't home just yet.

Next up for the capsule is a cross-country road trip from San Diego back to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where engineers will gather more information on how Orion performed on its unmanned test mission.

The spacecraft, which has room for four astronauts, was unloaded from the USS Anchorage Monday night in San Diego. The Navy ship recovered and towed Orion from the point where it parachuted down into the Pacific Ocean on Friday.

Stunning Photos of NASA's Orion: From Launch to Splashdown

Go Inside the Orion Capsule

NASA’s Big Stakes With Orion Test Flight Include Mars Plans

At a briefing Friday, NASA said it had to get different permits for each of the states Orion will pass through when it is trucked 2,500 miles back to Florida.

Orion is expected to be back in time for Christmas, according to NASA, bringing with it a trove of data detailing what Orion experienced during its incredible 4.5 hour mission on Friday.

PHOTO: The Orion Crew Module is seen during the first Exploration Flight test in the Pacific Ocean, Dec. 5, 2014. — Navy divers, assigned to Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 11 (EODMU11), Mobile Dive and Salvage Company 11-7, attach a towing bridal to the Orion Crew Module during the first Exploration Flight Test (EFT-1) NASA Orion Program following its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37, Dec. 5, 2014, in the Pacific Ocean, 600 miles southwest of San Diego.

The space capsule passed a series of milestones, flying through the Van Allen radiation belts and even managing to send the first live video of the entire globe back to Earth since Apollo 17 in 1972.

The spacecraft, which could one day ferry astronauts to Mars, orbited Earth twice at an altitude of 3,600 miles before splashing down 600 miles southwest of San Diego at 11:29 a.m. ET.

The capsule plunged toward Earth at a speed of 20,000 mph and reaching temperatures twice as hot as molten lava. Engineers at NASA and Lockheed Martin gathered data that will be analyzed over the next few days, according to NASA.