Nasa names new spacecraft 'Orion'

[MarkH]

Some awesome pictures, I think some of the best shots were looking back at the earth from 3600 miles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzTpeW0nkjI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Kenny]

In the Launch Video, what the hell was going on at around 1:50? Simulated camera shot? "LiveData"

[MarkH]

That was happening quite a lot during the flight showing live data in real time especially when other shots weren't much good. It also showed when thrusters or boosters were firing.

[Rick]

First Pieces of NASA's Orion for Next Mission Come Together at Michoud

NASA is another small step closer to sending astronauts on a journey to Mars. On Saturday, engineers at the agency's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans welded together the first two segments of the Orion crew module that will fly atop NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket on a mission beyond the far side of the moon.

"Every day, teams around the country are moving at full speed to get ready for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), when we'll flight test Orion and SLS together in the proving ground of space, far away from the safety of Earth," said Bill Hill, deputy associate administrator for Exploration Systems Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We're progressing toward eventually sending astronauts deep into space."

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