NASA Administrator Charles Bolden looks over the agency’s Orion spacecraft at Kennedy Space Center on the morning of Jan. 6, 2015. Orion was returned to Kennedy following its successful flight test on Dec. 5, 2014. At right is Jules Schneider, Lockheed Martin manager. At left is Kennedy Space Center Associate Director Kelvin Manning.
Bearing the marks of a spacecraft that has returned to Earth through a searing plunge into the atmosphere, Orion is perched on a pedestal inside the Launch Abort System Facility at Kennedy where it is going through post-mission processing. Although the spacecraft Bolden looked over did not fly with a crew aboard during the flight test, Orion is designed to carry astronauts into deep space in the future, setting NASA and the nation firmly on the journey to Mars.
Photo Credit: NASA/Cory Huston