The Orion service module spacecraft adapter cone for Exploration Flight Test 1 has arrived for checkout and processing.

Inside the Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Orion service module spacecraft adapter cone for Exploration Flight Test 1 has arrived for checkout and processing. Tooling and test fixtures have been attached to the cone.

Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry crews to space beyond low Earth orbit. It will provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The first unpiloted test flight of the Orion is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket and in 2017 on a Space Launch System rocket. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: NASA/Jim Grossmann