In the August issue of Smithsonian's Air& Space magazine, Tom Vanderbilt tests out NASA's new Orion spaceship, which will go deeper into space than anyspaceship has before.
在史密森学会8月份的《航天与航空》杂志中，汤姆·范德比尔特测试了NASA最新的猎户座宇宙飞船，该飞船将比以往任何飞船都要深入太空中去。
Vanderbilt toured a "low-fidelitymockup" of Orion at Lockheed Martin's Exploration Development Laboratoryin Houston, and he describes the spaceship as resembling a Star WarsStormtrooper's helmet.
汤姆·范德比尔在位于休斯敦的洛克希德马丁公司的探索研究实验室里测试了该飞船的“低保真度模型”，他形容这架飞船很像《星球大战》里突击队员的头盔。

Despite massive NASA budget cuts recently,NASA gave the lab $6.1 billion in 2006 for Orion's construction. When theprogram was canceled, Lockheed Martin created a contact, which has beenextended to 2020, to build capsules for three missions. Orion, Vanderbiltwrites, is "NASA's most ambitious crewed vehicle ever" and will"carry the human space program for the next 30 years." NASA hopesOrion will be able to complete everything from lunar exploration to Marsmissions.
尽管最近几年NASA的预算得到了大量的削减，但是在2006年的时候给该实验室拨款61亿美元用以研发猎户座飞船。当该计划被取消时，洛克希德马丁公司又与NASA取得联系，于是该计划被延期到2020年，任务是建造太空舱以完成三项任务。范德比尔认为猎户座飞船是NASA最富雄心的飞船，而且将在未来30年内带领人类进行太空探索。NASA希望猎户座飞船能够完成从探月到火星探险等任务。
Orion will eventually reach speeds of 20,000 mph, Vanderbiltreports, and will be able to leave low Earth orbit, where the InternationalSpace Station is located. According to NASA's website, Orion's first test flight willoccur by the end of the year, with Orion atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket. Orion'sfirst exploration mission, which will be the first to combine Orion with NASA'snew SpaceLaunch System, is scheduled for 2017.
猎户座的最终时速将达到2万英里，而且有能力离开低地球轨道，而国际空间站正位于该轨道上。根据NASA网站上的说法，猎户座的首次测试飞行将于年底前完成，运载火箭将是三角洲四号运载火箭。根据计划，猎户座将于2017年进行首次太空探险，到时猎户座飞船将首次与NASA的新空间发射系统相结合。