page_title: Orion (spacecraft)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Orion (spacecraft) / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Artist concept of the Block 1 SLS configuration in flight. The SLS is an advanced, heavy-lift rocket that will provide an entirely new capability for science and human exploration beyond Earth’s orbit. The first SLS mission -- Exploration Mission 1 -- in 2020 will launch an uncrewed Orion spacecraft to demonstrate the inte­grated system performance of the SLS rocket and spacecraft prior to a crewed flight. Black-and-white checkerboard targets on the exterior of the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket will enable photogrammetrists to measure critical distances during spaceflight, including booster separation from the core stage.
context_page_description: Orion is a spacecraft built by Lockheed Martin for NASA. Each Orion spacecraft will be able to carry up to six astronauts. The Orion vehicle will be launched on the Space Launch System. The first launch was on the Delta IV Heavy.
  Orion will launch from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center, the same launch site used by the Space Shuttle and the Saturn V. Orion is meant to take humans to the Moon and Mars.
context_section_description: Orion was first made for the Constellation program in 2004, as the Orion CEV (Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle). It was meant to be launched on the Ares I rocket. Then it would be able to go to the International Space Station. It was also planned to go to a spacecraft launched in pieces on different Ares V rockets, and the spacecraft with the Orion would go to the Moon, Mars, or another place.
  On October 11, 2010, Constellation was cancelled. They created a new program and a new rocket called the Space Launch System, and changed the name of Orion to the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. This rocket will launch Orion for going to the Moon in 2022 and the Mars in 2033.
caption: An artist mockup of the Space Launch System
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