On Thursday, December 4 the Orion spacecraft will lift off from Cape Canaveral in Florida. Although this will be an automated test, Orion is NASA’s first craft designed to carry human passengers since the space shuttle was retired in 2011.

However, this craft is designed to do things and go places the space shuttle never could. If all goes according to plan the 4.5 hour test flight will take it 3,600 miles from Earth, 15 times further out than the International Space Station. It will return to Earth traveling at 20,000 miles per hour and experience temperatures as high as 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

The primary concern with this first, automated, test flight is the safety of the craft. In addition to the incredible speeds and searing temperatures the Orion will be exposed to intense levels of radiation once it is outside of the Earth’s protective Van Allen belts.

Orion is designed to provide adequate shielding against radiation and equipped with a heat shield 16.5 feet in diameter, the largest such shield to date. The spacecraft also has a built in Launch Abort System (LAS) which will allow astronauts to escape during take off or descent.

“The data we will collect during Exploration Flight Test -1 (EFT-1) will shape every future deep space mission, and will help to ensure that when a crew is onboard, our systems will keep them safe. We’re constructing Orion to be the safest spacecraft ever built. For example, to pull the crew to safety in an emergency on the launch pad or during descent, we’ve developed a Launch Abort System (LAS). The LAS has half a million pounds of thrust and accelerates from 0 to 500 mph in 2 seconds. It can pull the crew a mile up and a mile away from the launch pad in an emergency,” Allison Rakes, Lockheed Martin spokesperson told Astrowatch.net.

Lockheed Martin was originally awarded the contract to build Orion in August, 2006. The Lockheed Martin team is holding its breath along with NASA as the test flight approaches, particularly after the fatal accident that consumed the Antares rocket in October.

“We live for this kind of project. We will tell our kids and our grandkids about this, The company’s hard working crew literally lives for this first step of future deep space exploration. We’ve had a team in Florida working around the clock for the past several months preparing for this moment. Once that Delta IV lifts off, you’re going to see quite the celebration,” said Rakes. 

Additional information about the Orion project, and future plans for it can be found on the NASA web site.