Published on September 10, 2017
On the eve of the first flight test of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the agency held a media briefing at Kennedy Space Center to preview the mission. Orion’s Exploration Flight Test-1 is scheduled for no earlier than December 4. Following launch atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV Heavy rocket from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, the uninhabited Orion will travel 3,600 miles in altitude to test many of the systems most critical to safety, before returning to Earth for a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.
