Video: Orion EFT-1 test flight ends with a splashdown in the Pacific

Astronauts will likely perform a previously-unplanned demonstration of the Orion spacecraft’s deep space rendezvous capabilities in a high-altitude orbit around Earth on the crew capsule’s first piloted test flight, now scheduled for 2023. 

As a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket prepares to carry NASA’s Orion spaceship on its first orbital flight test, we look back at the seven previous Heavy launches.

The Trump administration is requesting $25.2 billion for NASA in fiscal 2021, a 12 percent increase that includes $3.3 billion to kickstart development of a human-rated lander for the Artemis moon program. Nearly half of the budget request, $12.3 billion, is devoted to new and ongoing projects focused on the return to the moon and eventual flights to Mars.