Photos: Delta 4-Heavy ready for Orion flight test

The United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket lifts off with NASA’s Orion spacecraft on its inaugural space flight test at 7:05 a.m. EST Dec. 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station’s Complex 37.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft achieved all but two of 87 demo objectives on its first orbital flight last month, but details on the capsule’s performance will require dismantling the spaceship’s outer skin in a careful procedure designed to keep most of the Orion prototype intact for future testing.

Video as seen live of the Orion spaceship launching atop a powerful Delta 4-Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral on Friday, Dec. 5.