Photos of Orion Spacecraft

Ares 1-X Test Vehicle sits atop launch pad 39B The 327-foot-tall rocket is scheduled for an Oct. 27, 2009 test flight.

The Crew Mobility Chassis Prototype is NASA's new concept for a lunar truck. Researchers are trying it out at Moses Lake, Wash., this week as part of a series of tests of lunar surface concepts. One feature is its high mobility. Each set of wheels can pivot individually in any direction, giving the vehicle the ability to drive sideways, forward, backward and any direction in between -- important if the truck becomes mired in lunar dust, needs to zigzag down a steep crater wall or parallel park at its docking station. NASA currently is building the spacecraft and systems to return to the moon by 2020.

Technicians at Alliant Techsystems, or ATK, in Promontory, Utah, inspect the facility's new test stand, which contains the inverted, full-scale inert abort motor for the Orion crew capsule's launch abort system. The abort motor, which anchors atop the capsule, is designed to pull Orion and its the crew safely away from the Ares I rocket in the event of a mishap on the launch pad or during the first 300,000 feet of the launch. The launch abort system is a key element in NASA's continuing efforts to improve safety as the agency develops the next generation of spacecraft to return humans to the moon. (ATK)

Boeing Advanced Network and Space Systems material and process engineer Elizabeth Chu inspects the Thermal Protection System Manufacturing Demonstration Unit developed for NASA's Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle project. Boeing Advanced Systems was awarded a contract last year to develop a prototype heat shield to protect NASA astronauts from extreme heat during re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere upon returning from lunar and low-Earth orbit missions. The work was performed at Boeing facilities in Huntington Beach CA. Boeing Photo - Joe Olmos

NASA Dryden's Fabrication Branch constructed a mockup of the Orion crew module. More simplified than the actual spacecraft, the Orion mockup is the actual size of the real thing, inside and out.

Core components of the J-2X engine being designed for NASA's Constellation Program recently were installed on the A-1 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center

Size comparison of the Apollo Saturn V, Space Shuttle and the new Ares I and Ares V Rockets

Exploded view of the Orion Spacecraft Crew Exploration Vehicle

Orion Spacecraft Launch Abort System

NASA's new Ares V & Ares I Rockets

Orion CEV cross section view ( Heat sheild inset )

Orion Service Module Cutaway

The J-2X Rocket Engine

This artist concept shows astronauts and a lander on the lunar surface

Artist concept showing Orion Spacecraft returning to earth.