Video released by NASA gives an astronaut's-eye view of the intense conditions endured by the Orion spacecraft as it returned to earth.
Footage recovered after the uncrewed test flight on December 5th shows what Orion and its crew will endure when they return from planned deep space destinations on the journey to Mars.
Although the splashdown was shown live, much of the footage could not be seen because of a blackout caused by superheated plasma that surrounded the vehicle during the peak temperatures of its journey though the atmosphere.
But cameras recorded the full descent - allowing the public to see the extreme conditions a spacecraft experiences as it travels back to Earth from beyond low-Earth orbit.
The video begins 10 minutes before Orion's 4:30pm (11:29am EST) splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, just as the spacecraft hit Earth's atmosphere travelling at 20,000mph.
The plasma generated outside its heat shield changes colour from white through yellow and lavender to magenta as re-entry temperatures increase to their maximum point within the space of two minutes.
A sequence of parachutes then open as the spacecraft slows to just 20mph before splashing down off the coast of San Diego.
Orion was recovered by a combined NASA, US Navy and Lockheed Martin team and carried back to shore on USS Anchorage. It was then loaded onto a lorry and driven back to Kennedy Space Centre, where it arrived on Thursday.
Orion travelled 3,600 miles above Earth on its 4.5 hour flight test - further than any spacecraft built for humans has been in more than 40 years.
On its return to Earth, it also travelled faster and experienced hotter temperatures - 20,000mph and near 2,204C - than previous missions.
Orion will travel faster and experience even higher temperatures on future missions, when it returns from greater distances, but the test flight allowed engineers to check Orion's heat shield and other critical systems.
Work has begun on the next Orion capsule, which will launch for the first time on top of NASA's new Space Launch System rocket and travel to a distant orbit around the moon.
