KENNEDY SPACE CENTER NASA is preparing to launch its next-generation, deep-space capsule Orion next month on its first spaceflight, a mission that a NASA administrator Thursday called "our first step in our journey to Mars."

At a briefing, Deputy Associate Administrator William Hill and other NASA and industry officials outlined hopes and expectations for a mission Dec. 4 that will blast an unmanned Orion capsule from Kennedy Space Center, sending it 3,600 miles into space and back for a splashdown off Baja California, Mexico.

The flight, which will involve two Earth orbits and last less than five hours, will give NASA and its Orion business partner, Lockheed Martin, their first space test of the capsule envisioned as a critical part of any NASA trips to the moon, an asteroid, Mars or beyond.

Those missions are not envisioned until the 2020s and 2030s, and even the first manned flight of Orion is not expected before 2021.

For the Dec. 4 test, Orion will be staged on top the most powerful rocket available in the world today, a three-booster Delta IV Heavy, provided by United Launch Alliance. As launched, the capsule will be fully configured to carry four crew members although it will be unoccupied.

All the tests and research NASA will be conducting on the flight will be with the assumption that there are astronauts on board.

The launch is set for 7:05 a.m., with Dec. 5 and 6 available as backup launch days.

The mission will test Orion's capabilities ranging from the 17 separations that will occur as various parts of the rocket and capsule system fall away, to the computers' ability to withstand space radiation, to the heat shield's and parachutes' operations for re-entry and splashdown. The test flight will cost about $370 million including the rocket, but not including the capsule, which NASA and Lockheed Martin intend to recover and reuse.

Orion will go 3,600 miles into space by comparison, the International Space Station orbits the Earth just 260 miles away so that it can built up to a top speed of 20,000 mph on its return. That's almost as fast as it would have to go for a journey to the moon.

NASA's Orion Flight Director Mike Sarafin called the mission Orion's "trial by fire."

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NASA readies Orion for 'first step to Mars'