Photos: Gantry rolled back to reveal Orion

Teams working at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida last week connected a U.S.-built Orion crew module with its European-made power and propulsion element for the first time, a significant accomplishment ahead of the spacecraft’s shipment to Ohio this fall for testing inside the world’s largest vacuum chamber.

Multiple different camera angles of the Delta 4-Heavy rocket blasting off with NASA’s Orion capsule for Exploration Flight Test No. 1 on Dec. 5

John Grunsfeld, Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, speaks about the EFT-1 test flight and science opportunities made possible by the Orion capsule and its Space Launch System rocket.