NASA welcomes the next Orion spacecraft to the Kennedy Space Center on Monday, a ship that will travel farther than any spacecraft for human transport has ever gone, according to the agency.
A cargo plane called a Super Guppy will carry Orion from a NASA facility in New Orleans to the Kennedy Space Center.
On the Space Coast, the Orion crew module pressure vessel will be outfitted and processed, prepared for its next big test flight.
"When you see a capsule that is capable of carrying humans, and it arrives at the Kennedy Space Center, and the workforce here gets its hands on, magic happens," said Kennedy Space Center News Chief Mike Curie. "We're really looking forward to it."
It was just over a year ago that Orion launched on its first test flight from the Cape, orbiting Earth twice.
Still unmanned, the mission, called Exploration Mission-1, will see the Orion spacecraft go far into space. Orion will launch on top of NASA's new rocket, the Space Launch System, traveling thousands of miles beyond the moon to test how the harsh conditions of space will impact the spacecraft.
The 26-day test flight will set the stage for eventual human missions on Orion to Mars.
"Our plans to go to deep space are revitalized with the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft, and we're really excited, because the rocket and capsule combination will take us farther than we've really ever gone before," Curie said.
Orion and the SLS rocket will be prepared at KSC over the next two years.
Orion is scheduled to arrive at KSC on Monday afternoon. Exploration Mission-1 is scheduled for 2018.