Orion module. Image from nasa.gov.

Orion, test-launched today by NASA, may change the picture of space — with humans back in the center of the frame. Since the space shuttle mission concluded in 2011, NASA has been planning a new era. Orion is successor to the Apollo program, made famous by Neil Armstrong’s words as he became the first human to set foot on the moon: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” Orion will go far beyond, perhaps to Mars, according to Mark Geyer, program manager. Along with making history, Orion will be taking history; the space ship will carry an oxygen hose from an Apollo 11 space suit and a small grain of land from the lunar surface.

For more: http://www.nasa.gov/orion/

Building the World Blog by Kathleen Lusk Brooke and Zoe G Quinn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.