Employees and guests are seated Building high bay for the ceremony commemorating the bay's transition for use by the Constellation Program.

Employees and guests are seated in the Operations and Checkout (O&C) Building high bay for the ceremony commemorating the bay's transition for use by the Constellation Program. Originally built to process space vehicles in the Apollo era, the O&C Building will serve as the final assembly facility for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Orion, America's human spaceflight vehicle of the future, will be capable of transporting four crewmembers for lunar missions and later will support crew transfers for Mars missions. Each Orion spacecraft also may be used to support up to six crewmembers to the International Space Station after the space shuttle is retired in 2010. Design, development and construction of Orion's components will be performed by Lockheed Martin for NASA at facilities throughout the country. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett