Midday Roundup: NASA's Orion safely lands after soaring out of this world

Blastoff. The spacecraft Orion successfully splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after an early morning test flight today. The next-generation rocket ship reached 3,600 miles above the surface of the Earth—the highest a NASA spacecraft has flown since Apollo 17, the last moon mission 42 years ago. The craft uses a design similar to that of the Saturn rockets that propelled astronauts into outer space before the advent of the space shuttle program. Today’s unmanned test flight is the first of many the Orion program will undergo before it starts sending people back into space, which is still years down the road.

Sign of disapproval. In a symbolic move, the House of Representatives approved a bill Thursday that would block the president’s executive order on immigration. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., called the order a “power grab of enormous proportions.” But Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Md. defended the president: “Every president since President Dwight David Eisenhower has used this same broad authority, Republicans and Democrats alike.” The bill’s passage was symbolic because it stands no chance of clearing the Senate. Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security announced it is hiring nearly 1,000 people to carry out the president’s order. Congress does have the power to restrict the use of funds to pay their salaries, which could happen when Republicans take control of the Senate in January.

Delayed decision. Voters head back to the polls in Louisiana on Saturday for a Senate runoff election between Republican Congressman Bill Cassidy and incumbent Democrat Mary Landrieu. The closing days of the race have been defined largely by mudslinging. Cassidy has worked during the campaign to link Landrieu with an unpopular president and his maligned healthcare plan. For Republicans, adding a 54th seat to their new majority could prove critical to their hopes of holding the upper chamber in 2016. The latest poll has Cassidy leading Landrieu by 26 points.

Intervention. Attorney General Eric Holder has launched a civil rights investigation into the death of Eric Garner, an African-American man who died at the hands of police in New York City. A grand jury Wednesday declined to indict the white police officer, who restrained Garner with a chokehold. Numerous protests have clogged New York streets since the grand jury’s decision. Police arrested more than 200 people in protests overnight. A similar Justice Department investigation in Cleveland recently concluded the police there had a pattern of using excessive force against members of the public.

The Associated Press and WORLD Radio’s Mary Reichard and Kent Covington contributed to this report.