NASA’s First Space-Bound Orion Spacecraft Arrives at the Kennedy Space Center

After arriving from NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, the first space-bound Orion capsule was moved into a high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The occasion was marked by remarks from several NASA officials including Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and KSC Center Director Robert Cabana among others. NASA officials answered questions about the Orion spacecraft in a live television broadcast from followers of NASA’s social media accounts.
Technicians will turn it into a fully functioning spacecraft ahead of a flight test slated for 2014, which will take Orion farther than any human spacecraft has gone in more than 40 years. Orion will provide emergency abort capability, sustain astronauts during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space.

The flight test, called Exploration Flight Test-1 or EFT-1, will be an uncrewed flight, loaded with a wide variety of instruments to evaluate how Orion behaves during launch, in the vacuum of space and the through the searing heat of reentry. EFT-1 will use a Titan IV Heavy for launch.

NASA Chat: First Space-Bound Orion Arrives at Kennedy

Orion Crew Module Arrives at Kennedy