Video: Orion launch replays

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

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.

Boosted to an altitude of 3,604 miles by a Delta 4 rocket, NASA’s Orion deep space exploration vehicle fell back to Earth Friday in the program’s maiden voyage, slamming into the atmosphere at nearly 20,000 mph, enduring a hellish 4,000-degree re-entry and settling to a Pacific Ocean splashdown to wrap up a critical unmanned test flight.