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Mars mission astronauts rehearse water landings off Texas

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In this Thursday, July 13, 2017 photo, NASA astronaut Suni Williams, second from right, looks out over the Gulf of Mexico where testing of the Orion capsule is taking place about four miles off of Galveston Island, Texas. The testing is the first time since the Apollo program that NASA has practiced such egress techniques from a capsule in open water. (Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle via AP)

GALVESTON, Texas – NASA astronauts training for a possible mission to Mars have been practicing water manoeuvrs in a mock-up Orion space capsule in the Gulf of Mexico.

Several astronauts trained Thursday in the open water, about 4 miles (6.5 kilometres) from Galveston, Texas.

An Orion spacecraft is being prepared at Johnson Space Center in nearby Houston. It is intended for flight with NASA’s new SLS or Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket the agency says it has ever built.

The astronauts wore bright orange training uniforms as they trained for a possible water landing, jumping into the water, using flotation devices and deploying a life raft.

Coast Guard and other NASA and military safety personnel were positioned nearby.

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