# @nasaartemis on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/we_YyVGhxX
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/15348494-nasaartemis-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/3e976a43f9.jpg
- **Posted:** 2014-12-11T23:05:02.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA Artemis (@nasaartemis) — https://gondola.cc/nasaartemis

## Caption

If you're following our feed, you probably already know that this shot was taken last week before #Orion took its historic first flight. Sharing these first new shots showing NASA's progress in deep space exploration makes us that much more excited for what's on the horizon for NASA, Orion, the Space Launch System Heavy-Lift rocket, and the supporting Ground Systems at Kennedy Space Center. It's a thrilling step in a new era of human spaceflight off of our planet. 
Last Friday, “We’re already working on the next capsule,” said Mike Hawes, Lockheed Martin’s Orion program manager, the company that built Orion and operated the flight for NASA. “We’ll learn a tremendous amount from what we did today.” Pictured here, a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop is seen during sunrise on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2014, at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37, Florida. Orion launched onboard the rocket at 7:05 a.m. EST, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 and orbited Earth twice, reaching an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles above Earth before landing right on target in the Pacific Ocean. 
Orion did not carry any people into space during this flight, but is designed to take astronauts on deep space missions in the future. It became the first spacecraft designed for humans to leave low-Earth orbit since the Apollo 17 mission, the last moon landing by NASA.

Photo credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

#SLS #SpaceLaunchSystem #GSDO #ImOnBoard #JourneyToMars #deepspace #NASA #DeltaIVHeavy #LockheedMartin #progress #innovation

## Stats

- **Views:** 0
- **Likes:** 554
- **Shares:** 0
- **Comments:** 7

## Tags

deepspace, nasa, spacelaunchsystem, gsdo, lockheedmartin, journeytomars, innovation, sls, orion, deltaivheavy, progress, imonboard

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