Visitors tour and view the Orion boilerplate test vehicle secured in its recovery cradle and other support hardware.

Visitors tour the well deck of the USS Anchorage and view the Orion boilerplate test vehicle secured in its recovery cradle and other support hardware during the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM, Expo for L.A. Navy Days at the Port of Los Angeles in California. At right, visitors sign an Orion banner. Behind them is a mock-up of NASA’s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft. NASA, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy completed Underway Recovery Test 2 on the Orion test vehicle in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Diego to prepare for recovery of the Orion crew module on its return from a deep space mission. The underway recovery test allowed the teams to demonstrate and evaluate the recovery processes, procedures, new hardware and personnel in open waters.

The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program conducted the underway recovery test. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during 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 on Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, atop a Delta IV rocket and in 2017 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: Kim Shiflett