2014 test flight for Nasa's Orion spaceship (BBC)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News

The first flight of Orion, Nasa's new astronaut vehicle, will take place in early 2014, the agency has announced.

For this particular mission, the capsule will be unmanned, however.

It will see Orion make two highly elliptical orbits of the Earth before re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the ocean.

The vehicle is being designed to take astronauts beyond the space station to destinations such as the Moon, asteroids and even Mars.

Nasa is also developing a dedicated new rocket, known at the moment only as the Space Launch System (SLS), to put Orion and any associated equipment in orbit.
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more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15644238




SLS not ready before 2017 ... Manned Orion flight after 2020 ... We're looking at a decade before Americans return to space under their own power.

[Wilms]

1. We choose to go back into orbit before this decade is out!

:shrug:

[Fearless]

2. If someone located rare earth metals somewhere nearby we'd be back in space next week.

[bananas]

3. SpaceX and/or Boeing will have crew to ISS well before the end of the decade. nt

[bananas]

4. Orion is for BEO (Beyond Earth Orbit)

"highly elliptical orbits" is a key phrase.