14 DAY TRIAL // NASA officials at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, the former home of the American space agency's shuttle fleet, announce the successful delivery of the Orion Ground Test Vehicle. The capsule is meant to help engineers conduct path-finding operations inside the KSC Operations & Checkout (O&C) Facility, before the arrival of the first Orion spaceflight test vehicle, later this year.
Orion GTV was developed and built at a facility Lockheed Martin operates in Waterton, near Denver, Colorado. It traveled for more than 1,800 miles (2,896 kilometers) before finally making its way to the KSC. The Center took delivery of the capsule on April 21.
The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) is NASA's next space capsule, designed to be able to conduct missions in orbit, to near-Earth asteroids and Mars. Its first test flight is scheduled for 2013.