Dec 012014
 

Sadly, not *that* Orion, but the space capsule NASA has been working on for a decade or so.

NASA’s 1st Deep-Space Capsule in 40 Years Ready for Launch Debut

It will launch – unmanned – atop a Delta IV Heavy and will mosey on up to an apogee of 3,600 miles… out in the Van Allen belts, and further than any manned (capable) spacecraft has traveled since the Apollo program ended.

Don’t get too excited about NASA having a new ride anytime soon, though. manned flights probably won’t happen until 2021 or thereabouts. By that point Dragon capsules should be making regular flights to the Bigelow stations, with the last flights to ISS to bolt on the kiloton-scale self destruct mechanism.

 Posted by at 9:38 pm