Orion spacecraft successfully orbits the planet, lands off Baja California

Enlarge Photo

Bill Ingalls | NASA

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 at at 7:05 a.m. EST, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, in Florida. The Orion spacecraft will orbit Earth twice, reaching an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles above Earth before landing in the Pacific Ocean. No one is aboard Orion for this flight test, but the spacecraft is designed to allow us to journey to destinations never before visited by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. Photo credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Mark Anderson

Staff Writer- Sacramento Business Journal

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The Orion space capsule splashed down about 300 miles west of Baja California, ending a successful first mission for the system that could eventually bring astronauts to Mars.

Aerojet Rocketdyne components were on every stage of the Orion space mission, which reached speeds of 20,000 miles per hour.

The splashdown was caught on video by NASA.

Aerojet Rocketdyne is a subsidiary of Rancho Cordova-based GenCorp. Inc. (NYSE: GY), which is the region's largest publicly traded company.

"Aerojet Rocketdyne is honored to play such a critical role in the first step toward sending humans further into space than they have ever traveled in the history of space exploration," said Julie Van Kleeck, vice president of Space Advanced Programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne. "We look forward to continuing our legacy of supporting every NASA human spaceflight program since the Mercury era with our proven propulsion capabilities."

This was the inaugural fligh t of the Orion manned vehicle, which will eventually bring astronauts to space missions and potentially to Mars. This first test mission was instrument controlled and unmanned.

This mission evaluated several of Orion's systems such as avionics, attitude control, parachute and heat shield systems.

The main motors on the Delta IV are supplied by Aerojet Rocketdyne. This Delta IV is configured with three massive liquid-fuel rocket engines in a row. That rocket was jettisoned before the crew capsule made its reentry to Earth's atmosphere.

This mission will blasted the Orion 3,600 miles from Earth on a two-orbit flight, returning to earth less than five hours later at around 20,000 miles per hour. Aerojet Rocketdyne also built the in-space propulsion for the Orion crew craft.

Mark Anderson covers technology, agriculture, banking and finance, venture capital, energy, mining and hospitality for the Sacramento Business Journal.