---
title: "NASA Launches New Orion Spacecraft And New Era"
description: "NASA's new Orion spacecraft streaked into orbit Friday on a high-stakes test flight meant to usher in a new era of human exploration leading ultimately to Mars. For the first time in 42 years, NASA is sending a spacecraft built for humans farther than a couple hundred miles from Earth."
date: "2014-12-05"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Matthew Lincoln"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/justmatt"
url: "https://futurism.com/nasa-launches-new-orion-spacecraft-new-era"
categories:
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# NASA Launches New Orion Spacecraft And New Era

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/11-nasalaunches.jpg>)

- Friday's flight test brings NASA "one step closer" to putting humans aboard Orion, Bolden said just before liftoff
- To push Orion farther out on future flights, NASA is developing a megarocket known as Space Launch System or SLS. The first Orion-SLS combo will fly around 2018, again without a crew to shake out the rocket
- NASA's last trip beyond low-Earth orbit in a vessel built for people was the three-man Apollo 17 in December 1972. Orion will be capable of carrying four astronauts on long hauls and as many as six on three-week hikes.