Right On Target, So Direct

I missed the Orion launch this morning but got hooked into the re-entry and splash down. This was the first step in testing critical technologies needed to get to and back from Mars. Would the heat shields work? Here are the technical details. The flight took 4hrs 20mins and passed trough the Van Halen Radiation Belt twice (I have no idea what that is either). At its peak it was 3,600 miles from Earth. At the Entry Interface it was travelling at 20,000 miles per hour o_O and withstood temperatures of around 4,000 F. Pretty hot I'd say. A perfect mission and a great thing.