Orion (spacecraft)

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is the partially reusable crewed spacecraft that NASA uses for the Artemis lunar exploration program. Its crew module, a capsule built by Lockheed Martin, flies with a European Service Module provided by the European Space Agency and manufactured by Airbus Defence and Space, and it supports a crew of four beyond low Earth orbit for up to 21 days undocked. Lockheed Martin conceived it in the early 2000s as a proposal for the Crew Exploration Vehicle of NASA's Constellation program, and NASA selected it in 2006. After Constellation was cancelled in 2010 it was redesigned to launch on the Space Launch System. Its first uncrewed test flight launched on 5 December 2014 and Artemis II carried a crew around the Moon in 2026.