Photos: Delta 4-Heavy with Orion on eve of launch

Fresh home from a high-flying test flight Friday that took it 3,600 miles above Earth, NASA’s Orion spacecraft was pulled off a U.S. Navy recovery ship Monday night for initial inspections before a cross-country trip to its home base in Florida.

The hatch issue caused NASA to modify its prelaunch preparations within the Vehicle Assembly Building but it continues to target an early February launch of the mission to carry four astronauts on a loop around the Moon.

NASA’s heavy-lifting mega-rocket and its ground support systems at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will not be ready for launches until at least mid-2018, even with extra funding approved by Congress, the space agency’s senior human spaceflight official told lawmakers.