Orion Backstage: Navy diver Beau Lontine prepares for Orion recovery04:33

When NASA’s Orion returns to Earth after traveling more than 40,000 miles beyond the moon during its next mission and splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, a team from the U.S. military will help secure Orion and safely return it back to land. U.S. Navy diver Beau Lontine and a team from the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force and NASA practiced Orion recovery techniques in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Johnson Space Center in Houston, the facility where astronauts train for spacewalks. The evaluations help the team prepare for an upcoming series of tests off the Coast of San Diego in October where they’ll check out the hardware and operations they’ll use to secure Orion after its first test flight of Orion with the agency’s Space Launch System rocket in late 2018. The testing all helps pave the way for Orion flights with astronauts.