NASA launches Orion

Buzzfeed has an article by Mary Ann Georgantopoulos about the latest NASA launch:

The Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 10:29 ET. The rocket was stable and upright when it landed. It entered Earth’s atmosphere at twenty thousand mph, and withstood peak temperatures of four thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
Three parachutes assisted the spacecraft in slowing down. The three main parachutes would nearly cover a football field. Orion traveled sixty thousand miles, and the Navy recovered the spacecraft.
Orion launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida after initially being scrubbed due to high winds and a valve issue.
While no one was aboard the Orion for this flight test, the spacecraft is designed to eventually carry astronauts deeper into space than ever before. It’s NASA’s first manned spacecraft in more than forty years.
The test, called Exploration Flight Test-1, launched atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy rocket. The spacecraft will orbit the Earth twice, flying approximately 3,600 miles above the planet, more than fourteen times higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.
It was recovered again after it splashed into the Pacific Ocean near Mexico’s Baja coast. While the capsule will not be carrying any humans, the mission is especially risky for the officials on hand that will retrieve it from the ocean. “The environment in the open ocean is a hazardous environment in and of itself,” Jeremy Graeber, recovery director for the test flight, said during a news conference. “Nominally, the vehicle coming down should not pose any threats to the recovery forces, but it’s a test flight, so there are systems that we are not a hundred percent sure that we know what position they’re in once we’re splashed down. We have high confidence that they’ll be in great shape, but we’ve prepared ourselves in case there are some issues.”
Orion’s flight took about four and a half hours.
This is also the first mission to test a heat shield strong enough to protect against four thousand degree temperatures and a parachute system designed to slow down Orion’s descent.
If all goes well, Orion’s next flight will be a seven-day mission, again without a crew, followed by its first crewed flight in as early as 2021.
NASA attempted a launch on Thursday, but a fuel and drain valve that didn’t close scuttled that mission. Strong winds and a boat in the launch area also caused delays.

Rico says it's gonna be a long (between seven to eight months), and apparently one-way, trip to Mars... (And wasn't there a movie about this?)