First Orbital Flight Test of NASA's Orion Deep Space Crew Capsule

The launch of NASA’s deep space Orion crew capsule on its first orbital flight test, December 5, 2014. The spacecraft took towards space atop a mammoth United Launch Alliance Delta-IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral, FL Space Launch Complex-37B. The mission, Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) put the unmanned Orion in action, orbiting the Earth twice & reaching an altitude of 3,600 miles – further than any crewed spacecraft has been since Apollo 17 – in order to position itself for a violent 20,000 mph re-entry that astronauts will experience on Orion’s deep-space missions in the coming decade.

Coverage provided for AmericaSpace & The Mars Society

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