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NASA’s new spacecraft Orion, which is designed to eventually take humans to an asteroid and Mars, will undergo its inaugural test flight on Thursday, December 4.

The un-crewed 4.5-hour flight, called Exploration Flight Test-1, is expected to begin around 7 am EDT from Cape Canaveral, Florida, if conditions are right. Orion will orbit Earth twice, covering more than 60,000 miles and reaching an altitude of 3,600 miles on the second orbit—15 times farther than the orbit of the International Space Station. The spacecraft will return through Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of 20,000 miles per hour, which will generate temperatures near 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit on Orion’s heat shield.

The Museum will host a viewing event for the test flight from 10:30—12 pm. Visitors to the Museum can watch along with Curator Denton Ebel as Orion re-enters Earth’s atmosphere and splashes down into the Pacific Ocean.

Learn more about the test flight and about the Museum event. 

Image courtesy of NASA