Slideshow and video of NASA's Orion completing its historic first journey

Cape Canaveral, Florida -- The Orion capsule, NASA's first spaceship designed to reach Mars, returned to Earth in a fireball and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off Baja, California at 9:29 a.m MST.

The unmanned capsule, designed and built by Jefferson County-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. (LMSS), shot through the earth's atmosphere in a 4,000-degree fireball and then parachuted in a "dead-on, bull's-eye" return, as one NASA official put it, for U.S. Navy crews to recover,.

Orion performed its crucial, self-guided flight "to perfection," mission control said. It came back exactly where planned 4-1/2 hours after firing into the Florida skies above NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The two-orbit test launch took Orion to 3,600 miles away from Earth, the farthest a spacecraft designed to carry people has gone since the Apollo 17 lunar mission in 1972.

As the capsule came down, emotions flowed at a private Lockheed Martin gathering for company executives and industry partners in nearby Cocoa Beach.

"Lots of tears, lots of relief and clapping. It's been a lot of work by a lot of people to get here," said Rick Ambrose, LMSS executive vice president. "It's quite an honor to partner with NASA and share in this story — the first step on the journey to Mars."

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• Click the image above to view live-shot photos of the history-making liftoff of Orion.
• Watch NASA video of the launch below.

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Orion blasted off for space Friday aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket built by Centennial-based United Launch Alliance.

The launch, postponed from Thursday, took place on schedule at 5:05 am MST from NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

Greg Avery covers tech, telecom, aerospace, bioscience and media for the Denver Business Journal and writes for the "TechFlash" blog. Phone: 303-803-9222.