Orion Lapel Pin

Orion is a spacecraft designed by Lockheed Martin for NASA, the space agency of the United States. Orion development began in 2005 as part of the Constellation program, where Orion would fulfill the function of a Crew Exploration Vehicle. Each Orion spacecraft was projected to carry a crew of four astronauts. The spacecraft was originally designed to be launched by the Ares I launch vehicle. On 11 October 2010, with the cancellation of the Constellation Program, the Ares program ended and at that time the Orion vehicle was planned to be launched on top of an alternative, cheaper Space Launch System to the Ares series.

The first orbital test flight of the Orion was planned for 2013, abort tests in 2014 and the first crewed Orion flight was anticipated in 2016. If commercial orbital transportation services are unavailable, Orion would handle logistic flights to the International Space Station.

The Obama Administration's proposed cancellation of the Constellation program began in February 2010 and was signed into law October 11. The bill is basically a retooling of the Constellation Program, moving the objective away from a moon base and more towards a Near-Earth object (NEO) mission and an eventual Mars landing.