ok - a dumb question:
Why didn’t they splash Orion in the Atlantic off Florida and just bring straight back to Cape Caneveral?
ok - a dumb answer:
They did not want to risk another Bermuda Triangle episode.
It’s a government program, plus or minus one ocean..... or close enought for government work.
I am going to guess it is one of two things:
1.) The orbital mechanics didn’t work for a splashdown in the Atlantic off Florida
2.) They couldn’t risk even in the slightest having any kind of malfunction and having it hit land.