NASA's Orion spacecraft designed to transport astronauts to Mars is getting ready for its much anticipated first ever test flight this week.

The unmanned Orion Exploration Test Flight-1 is scheduled to launch December 4 from Launch Pad 37 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. Orion is currently mounted on a Delta IV heavy-lift rocket and is specifically designed to fly without a human pilot.

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Orion's mission will take it some 3,600 miles from Earth or a distance three times farther than the International Space Station. The capsule will return to Earth travelling at some 20,000 miles per hour to splash down in the Pacific.

A Lockheed Martin team in Florida has been working round the clock the last seven months to prepare for this milestone moment when the Delta IV heavy-lift rocket lifts off with the Orion as payload.

The Orion capsule will be equipped with a Launch Abort System (LAS) that will rescue the crew in the event that an anomaly occurs on the launch pad, during descent or on re-entry. If the LAS is activated during the launch sequence, astronauts will be rocketed to safety and away from the launch vehicle.

Private U.S. aerospace company Lockheed Martin won the bid to design and build the Orion spacecraft in August 31, 2006. Lockheed Martin believes this project will become the first step in deep space exploration, said spokesperson Allison Rakes.

A couple of accidents, however, have jolted the aerospace industry, The Antares rocket exploded just seconds after liftoff last October 28 while Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo broke apart in mid-air, killing one pilot.

TagsNASA's Orion Spacecraft is Getting Ready for December 4 Launch, NASA, orion spacecraft, NASA orion spacecraft launch test flight december 4