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NASA's newest spacecraft, Orion, will be launching into space for the first time in December 2014, on a flight that will take it farther than any spacecraft built to carry humans has gone in more than 40 years and through temperatures twice as hot as molten lava to put its critical systems to the test.

The hypnotic video-recorded through the crew module's windows-was among the first data removed from the unmanned Orion capsule after its Dec. 5 test flight that lifted off from Cape Canaveral, FL and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 4.5 hours later after traveling 3,600 miles above Earth. It was the farthest journey of a human-spaceflight vehicle since 1972, when the last of NASA's Apollo missions flew to the moon.

Unlike its real-time airing on NASA TV, this video shows all of the re-entry footage, beginning 10 minutes before splashdown, and including parts missed during the original downlink's blackout, when atmospheric friction caused peak temperatures of 4,000 ºF temperatures. As the capsule hurtles through the atmosphere at 20,000 mph, the resulting trail of plasma changes color from white to yellow to lavender to magenta as temperatures increase. The camera also captures the elaborate parachute deployment that slowed Orion's fall to a gingerly 20 mph for landing.

The future of manned spaceflight is coming into focus. Whether it's through NASA's Orion program, its partnerships with private companies or in the form of the quick, space-immersion experiences that Virgin Galatic's SpaceshipTwo spaceships are soon to offer.

Billionaire Richard Branson recently placed a full-scale replica of his spaceship on the deck of the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in New York City. You can see it for yourself in the gallery above and Vine video below.