SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - It was an adrenaline-filled mission for NASA, and San Diego sailors waited for the Orion capsule to splash down in the Pacific on Sunday.
"Never thought this would happen, and I'm just excited to be a part of it," Nicolas Aepaia, Navy diver, said.
He was hands-on with the capsule when it splashed down near Baja California. He was able to connect the equipment needed to tow the capsule into the ship.
"The only thing going through my mind was really- this thing just came from outer space, and we're the first people to touch it," Arpaia said.
He went through more than a year of training to make sure the Artemis Mission was a success.
"What these people do and the divers- the entire ship- the choreography they executed to bring it back was absolutely stunning," he said.
While this capsule didn't have people in it- her role was to look forward to when people are actually inside the capsule.
"I was watching the whole process. I didn't have a specific role for this except to look forward to when we do have people on it," Astronaut Shannon Walker said. "How's it going to be for the crew on there?" "How do we extract the crew from the capsule to get them back to shore safely."
She wants those who watched the mission from home to know that although it was a test mission-- it was extremely successful.
"It's really setting us up well to go on the next Artemis mission," Walker said.
Once the Orion capsule makes its way off the USS Portland, it'll make its way to Florida, where NASA will do lots of research.
