With access doors at Space Launch Complex 37 opened, the Orion and Delta IV Heavy stack is visible in its entirety inside the Mobile Service Tower where the vehicle is undergoing launch preparations. Orion will make its first flight test on Dec. 4 with a morning launch atop the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy. The spacecraft will orbit the Earth twice, including one loop that will reach 3,600 miles above Earth. No one will be aboard Orion for this flight test, but the spacecraft is being designed and built to carry astronauts to deep space destinations such as an asteroid.
<bdi><a href="https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q117448892" class="extiw" title="d:Q117448892"><span title="NASA photographer">Kim Shiflett</span></a>
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2014-11-24 13:50:19
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasaorion/15262095184/">https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasaorion/15262095184/</a>; see also <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/#/Detail/46647">https://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/#/Detail/46647</a>