KSC-2009-2505

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – A NASA official talks to visitors at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida about the Orion crew exploration vehicle mockup and the Constellation Program. The Orion mockup is on display before heading offshore to be tested in open water. The spacecraft mock-up traveled from the Naval Surface Warfare Center's Carderock Division in Bethesda, Md. The goal of the open water testing, dubbed the Post-landing Orion Recovery Test, or PORT, is to determine what kind of motion astronauts can expect after landing, as well as outside conditions for recovery teams. Part of the Constellation Program, Orion is targeted to begin carrying humans to the International Space Station in 2015 and to the moon by 2020. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller