Orion Spacecraft Moon Mission Animation

The Orion is a spacecraft design currently under development by the United States space agency NASA. Each Orion spacecraft will carry a crew of four to six astronauts, and will be launched by the Ares I, a launch vehicle that is also currently under development. Both Orion and Ares I are elements of NASA's Project Constellation, which plans to send human explorers back to the Moon and then onward to Mars. UPDATE 07/02/2012: NASA's new Orion spaceship arrives in Florida; to fly in 2014 .