Anchorage's keel was laid down on 24 September 2007, at the Avondale Shipyard near New Orleans, Louisiana, then owned by Northrop Grumman Ship Systems.

[9][10] Senior project managers from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), who oversaw the Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) for the uncrewed Orion spacecraft, conferred with Rear Admiral Fernandez L. Ponds, commander Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) 3, and Captain William R. Grotewold, the ship's commanding officer, on board San Diego at her home port of San Diego, 12 September 2013.

[6] "NASA did a trade study whether they wanted Orion to land on the ground or in the water," Andy Quiett, Detachment 3 deputy operations lead for the Orion program and Department of Defense (DoD) liaison for NASA said, "and because of the size, weight and the deep space requirements of the vehicle, they determined it needed to land in water."

Orion's life support, propulsion, thermal protection, and avionics systems enable the spacecraft to extend the duration of her deep space missions, as part of the goal to eventually land on Mars.

Divers attached lines from the small boats to guide the capsule toward Anchorage, where a NASA-designed winch hauled the module into the well deck.