Geyer won't say how much contracting out this first test flight to Lockheed Martin is saving taxpayers, though he did say it makes financial sense. He said Lockheed has expertise in areas that NASA "doesn't need to get in the middle of."

"They know how to integrate rockets. They've built rockets," he said. "So we contracted with them and we said, 'Look, I'm going to give you these objectives. I want you to test the heat shield, I want you to test the avionics. I want you to test the parachutes.'"

Lockheed and the United Launch Alliance, which is providing the rocket, even took an unusual step for a NASA space flight and licensed both the launch and re-entry with the Federal Aviation Administration. After this flight, however, NASA will take the lead.

Much of Orion borrows from the Apollo and space shuttle systems, but not everything.

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"The shape is very similar to Apollo, because the physics haven't changed," Geyer said.

However, Hawes said, "Everything inside is new."

Changes include using composite materials that lighten the craft and a new cockpit reducing the 300 switches from Apollo to about 50 for Orion. Some components were created using 3-D printing.

If all goes well, another test flight will be going into a very high orbit around the moon, which will include a service module built by Airbus, and by 2021, a manned mission. NASA is less interested in returning to the moon and more interested in reaching an asteroid, towing it into lunar orbit, and using it as a potential base from which to go to Mars.

Currently the Orion program is budgeted for about $1 billion a year. Geyer hopes that continues, but he and everyone may be feeling more pressure than ever to see next month's test succeed, given failures elsewhere.

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New spacecraft from NASA & Lockheed