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Watch NASA's Orion Spacecraft Make Its First Trip Into Space

Watch NASA's New Space Capsule Make Its First Trip Into Space
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Senior Science Editor, The Huffington Post

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Update: NASA scrubbed the launch of the Orion space capsule this morning after a series of delays caused by high winds and problems with the rocket that was to have sent the craft into orbit. The next opportunity to launch Orion will come tomorrow morning.

It's showtime for NASA's Orion spacecraft.

The agency is launching the capsule for its first flight test on Dec. 4. The launch window starts at 7:05 a.m. EST, and you can watch the action live on NASA TV above.

Orion has been in development since 2005, and the spacecraft may be used one day to ferry humans to an asteroid or even to Mars.

"Orion is the exploration spacecraft for NASA, and paired with the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket it will allow us to explore the solar system," Mark Geyer, program manager of Orion, which is based at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, said in a written statement.

(Story continues below image.)

The Orion crew capsule will embark on its first voyage Thursday morning, and here is where you can follow the launch online.

The unmanned Orion spacecraft will lift off aboard a Delta IV Heavy rocket to orbit twice around Earth before splashing down in the Pacific. While no one will be aboard Orion for this test, the flight will evaluate the spacecraft's performance.

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Before You Go

Best Space Photos Ever Taken
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Australian National University astrophysicist Brian Schmidt chose this Hubble photo of Supernova SN 1994D as his favorite space image, which he called "the poster child of a type Ia supernovae." (credit:NASA/ESA, The Hubble Key Project Team and The High-Z Supernova Search Team)
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The crescent planet Neptune and its crescent moon Triton, as seen by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1989. (credit:Voyager 2, NASA)
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"Earthrise," the first picture taken of planet Earth by people orbiting the moon. This shot was captured by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders on December 24, 1968, as his spacecraft became the first to fly around the moon. (credit:NASA)
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This photo, called "Earth From Mars," was taken by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit on March 8, 2004. It was the first image of Earth seen from the surface of a planet beyond the moon. (credit:NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas A&M)
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This seminal 1995 image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Called the Hubble Deep Field, it collected light over many hours to reveal the deepest view of the universe yet, which included thousands of distant galaxies. (credit:R. Williams (STScI), the Hubble Deep Field Team and NASA)
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