Nasa’s Orion deep space capsule launches successfully

A rocket launched from Florida carrying an unmanned version of the US space agency's new crew capsule - Orion. The Orion spacecraft made a "bull's-eye" splashdown in the Pacific on Friday bringing forth a new era of human exploration aiming for Mars.

After two laps of Earth, the Orion spacecraft plunged through the atmosphere at 20,000 mph, enveloped in a fireball that scorched its heat shield with temperatures up to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

NASA called it a "bull's eye" landing.

"There's your new spacecraft, America," Mission Control commentator Rob Navias said as the Orion capsule neared the water.

Navias called the journey "the most perfect flight you could ever imagine."

The capsule reached a peak altitude more than 14 times farther from Earth than the International Space Station. No spacecraft designed for astronauts had gone so far since Apollo 17 - NASA's final moon shot - 42 years ago.

Orion is reminiscent of the Apollo command ships that took men to the Moon in the 60s and 70s, only bigger and with cutting-edge systems.

Orion is being developed alongside a powerful new rocket that will have its own debut in 2017 or 2018.

To propell Orion farther out on future flights, NASA is developing a megarocket known as Space Launch System or SLS. The first Orion-SLS combo will fly around 2018, again without a crew to shake out the rocket, although it will be capable of carrying four astronauts on long hauls and as many as six on three-week hikes.