November 6, 2007 9:12 AM PST
Researchers at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in Southern California have built the first stage of the Orion manned spacecraft--a full-scale model. The mock-up craft, which looks like a flying saucer from a 1950s sci-fi movie, is part of a test of the launch abort system.
NASA expects that the Orion spacecraft will eventually take astronauts to the moon and maybe even Mars. See previous coverage on the Orion capsule. NASA hopes that an Orion spacecraft will land astronauts on the moon by 2020.
Photo by NASA/Tom Tschida
