---
title: "Orion Passes Key NASA Flight Review"
description: "The Orion spacecraft cleared one of the final hurdles to its first launch when top managers from NASA and Lockheed Martin successfully completed a key review of the vehicle’s systems"
date: "2014-11-22"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "Andrew Johnson"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/andrewjohnson"
url: "https://futurism.com/orion-passes-key-nasa-flight-review"
categories:
  - "NASA"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Orion Passes Key NASA Flight Review

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/14-313b.jpg>)

- Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for Orion and recently completed its fabrication in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at the Kennedy Space Center in September 2014
- Orion will lift off on a Delta IV Heavy rocket on its inaugural test flight to space on the uncrewed Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission at 7:05 a.m. EST on December 4, 2014, from Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida
- The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket is the world’s most powerful rocket and the only booster sufficiently powerful to launch the 50,000 pound Orion EFT-1 spacecraft to orbit