NASA's first Orion space capsule is being shipped from New Orleans to Denver, where Lockheed Martin engineers will put it through an extensive testing program to establish whether or not it is up to the challenges of spaceflight. The first unmanned test flight could come as early as 2013, with the first manned flight possibly in 2016.
Orion was originally intended to carry astronauts back to the Moon under the Constellation program, but President Obama canceled Constellation. Orion was saved to be used as a lifeboat in case of emergency aboard ISS. It still may get into deep space, however. President Obama has proposed a goal of sending a manned missiion to an asteroid by 2025. To that end, Lockheed Martin planners have developed the "Plymouth Rock" concept, in which several Orions would be linked together to form the ship that would fly the asteroid mission.
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