WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, third from right, looked over the agency's Orion spacecraft this morning for the first time since it returned to Kennedy Space Center following the successful Orion flight test on Dec. 5. At far right is Jules Schneider, Lockheed Martin manager. Standing near Bolden is Paul Cooper, a Lockheed Martin manager. At far 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.