This Thursday, NASA looks to the future as it launches its new spacecraft Orion for its first test flight.
But why is Orion so important?
Not only is Orion the first new spacecraft the agency has created in a generation, but Orion is the first spacecraft from the agency designed for deep space travel, including future missions to Mars.
Orion will take astronauts farther than ever before, including to Mars by the 2020s, "carrying the spirit of humanity with them to the Red Planet."
NASA released a video today showcasing Orion's cockpit.
Of course, Thursday's test won't see Orion visiting Mars. Its first flight will only last around 4 ½ hours. However, its flight will take it farther than a capsule built for humans has gone since the Apollo moon missions, over 3,500 miles in space. That's about 15 times farther than the International Space Station (ISS). There, it will build up momentum as it takes two laps around Earth, and then reenters the atmosphere at around 20,000 miles per hour.
After reentering the atmosphere, it will slow down and safely land in the Pacific Ocean, where a crew will retrieve it for future use.
Orion will also have a crew, although it's not a human one. NASA is packing the capsule with memorabilia, such as a Captain Kirk action figure, a muppet, a dinosaur fossil and a piece of an Apollo spacesuit.
After failed test launches by commercial agencies recently resulted in an exploding rocket and a pilot's death and injury, a successful Orion launch will also renew the public's confidence in space exploration.
One of Orion's earliest missions will be sending astronauts to an asteroid, an operation that will test technologies designed for manned missions to Mars, although some of those technologies will also get tested during Thursday's test flight.
"Orion's flight test is designed to test many of the riskiest elements of leaving Earth and returning home in the spacecraft," writes NASA on its website. "It will evaluate several key separations events, including the jettison of the launch abort system that will be capable of carrying astronauts on future missions to safety if a problem were to arise on the launch pad or during ascent to space, and the separation of the Orion crew module from its service module ahead of its reentry though Earth's atmosphere."
Orion launches this Thursday from Cape Canaveral at 7:05 EST. Although future missions will use NASA's Space Launch System rocket, this test flight will use a Delta IV rocket instead.
[Photo Credit: NASA]
