NASA Orion capsule moving to 2014 launch: Future Asteroid Exploration

A crane lifts the Orion EFT-1 crew module from its birdcage processing stand for transfer to dolly for continued assembly inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as workers monitor progress. 

Orion’s first unpiloted test flight is scheduled to launch in 2014. 

Credit: NASA/Frankie Martin 

NASA is picking up the construction pace on the inaugural space-bound Orion crew capsule at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida and accelerating towards blastoff on the unmanned Exploration Flight Test-1 mission (EFT-1) slated for September 2014.

The Orion capsule is being constructed in the Orion manufacturing assembly facility in the Operations and Checkout Building (O & C) and will be mounted atop a mammoth Delta 4 Heavy Booster which will one day lead to deep space human forays to Asteroids and Mars.

"We plan to power up Orion for the first time this summer," said Scott Wilson, Orion's Production Operations manager for NASA at KSC stated to a group of reporters.

EFT-1 Mission
The Orion EFT-1 flight is a critical first step towards achieving NASA's new goal of capturing and retrieving a Near Earth Asteroid for eventual visit by astronauts flying aboard an Orion vehicle by 2021 – if NASA's proposed budget request is approved.

KSC will have a leading role in NASA's asteroid retrieval project that could occur some four years earlier than President Obama's targeted goal of 2025 for a human journey to an asteroid.

Capturing an asteroid and dispatching astronauts aboard Orion to collect precious rock samples is reputed to aid the scientific understanding of the formation of the Solar System as well as bolster Planetary Defense strategies.

The importance of understanding NEOs and Asteroids is gathering more interest, following the unforeseen Russian meteor strike in February which injured over 1200 people and damaged over 3000 buildings.