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SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Workers simulate moving the Orion boilerplate test vehicle in place to be lifted into the crew module transportation fixture at the Mole Pier at Naval Base San Diego in California to a warehouse at the naval base. The test vehicle is attached to the crew module recovery cradle. The Ground Systems Development and Operations Program, Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy are evaluating the hardware and processes for preparing the Orion crew module for Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, for overland transport from the naval base to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orion is the exploration spacecraft designed to carry astronauts to destinations not yet explored by humans, including an asteroid and Mars. It will have emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during space travel and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities. The first unpiloted test flight of the Orion is scheduled to launch later this year atop a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to an altitude of 3,600 miles above the Earth's surface. The two-orbit, four-hour flight test will help engineers evaluate the systems critical to crew safety including the heat shield, parachute system and launch abort system. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett