Orion capsule, built for deep space, gets to Florida

NASA's first Orion vehicle settles in at the Kennedy Space Center to get outfitted for an unmanned test flight in 2014. The first manned flight is expected around 2021.

The Orion spacecraft on display in the Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center.

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. -- The first space-bound Orion capsule, the centerpiece of NASA's post-shuttle push to break out of low Earth orbit for eventual manned flights to a variety of deep space targets, was officially unveiled at NASA's Florida spaceport today. The spacecraft will be outfitted for an unmanned test flight in 2014.

"As KSC celebrates its 50th anniversary this month, I can't think of a more appropriate way to celebrate than by having the very first Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle here at KSC," Robert Cabana, the center's director and a former shuttle commander, told more than 400 managers, engineers and technicians gathered at Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building.

"Orion is ushering in a new era of space exploration beyond our home planet, enabling us to go farther than we've ever gone before. The future is here, now, and the vehicle we see here today is not a Powerpoint chart. It's a real spacecraft, moving toward a test flight in 2014."

Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, talks with reporters about the Orion crew capsule that NASA hopes to launch on a test flight in 2014.

Sen. Bill Nelson, the Florida Democrat who has led the congressional effort to build a new heavy lift rocket that will boost Orion into deep space, said the arrival of the first capsule is a symbol of things to come.

"Isn't this beautiful?" he said, standing before the empty pressure shell of the first test capsule. "I know there are a lot of people here who can't wait to get their hands and their fingers on this hardware. And ladies and gentlemen, we're going to Mars. Without question, the long-term goal of our space program, human space program right now is the goal of going to Mars in the decade of the 2030s.

"We still need to refine how we're going to go there, we've got to develop a lot of technologies, we've got to figure out how and where we're going to stop along the way. The president's goal is an asteroid in 2025. But we know the Orion capsule is a critical part of the system that is going to take us there."

Built by Lockheed Martin, the green interior pressure vessel that will make up the core of the first Orion capsule was delivered to Kennedy last week. Over the next year or so, engineers will attach a heat shield, install avionics systems and flight computers, and add in other critical components. If all goes well, the capsule will be launched on an unmanned test flight -- Exploration Flight Test 1, or EFT-1 -- in 2014.