Orion EFT-1 Press Briefing. NASA public domain image. Kennedy space center.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – During a media event inside the Horizontal Integration Facility at Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot speaks to members of the media. Also attending the briefing were Kennedy Space Center Director Bob Cabana and Tony Taliancich, director of East Coast Launch Operations with United Launch Alliance, or ULA. The event was held to showcase two of the ULA Delta IV boosters for the Orion Exploration Flight Test-1, or EFT-1, mission. 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 Orion, EFT-1, is scheduled to launch in 2014 atop a Delta IV rocket and in 2017 on NASA’s Space Launch System rocket. For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/orion. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett