NASA's Orion spacecraft, atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket, lifts off on its first unmanned orbital test flight from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, in Cape... (Associated Press) 
 
 CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA's new Orion spacecraft streaked into orbit Friday on a high-stakes test flight meant to usher in a new era of human exploration leading ultimately to Mars. 
 
 The unmanned orbital journey began with a sunrise liftoff witnessed by thousands of NASA guests. Parts of the spacecraft peeled away exactly as planned, falling back toward Earth as onboard cameras provided stunning views of our blue, cloud-covered planet. 
 
 "The star of the day is Orion," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr., back for the second morning in a row. He called it "Day One of the Mars era." 
 
 Orion's debut will be brief — just 4½ hours from launch to splashdown, with two orbits of Earth. But for the first time in 42 years, NASA is sending a spacecraft built for humans farther than a couple hundred miles from Earth. The previous time was the Apollo 17 moon shot. 
 
 And it's NASA's first new vehicle for space travel since the shuttle. 
 
 "Very exciting," NASA's Orion program manager, Mark Geyer, pleased by the successful jettison tests during the flight's early minutes. "We still have a bunch to go." 
 
 Friday's flight test brings NASA "one step closer" to putting humans aboard Orion, Bolden said just before liftoff. 
 
 Sluggish rocket valves and wind halted Thursday's launch attempt. Everything went NASA's way Friday as the Delta IV rocket carried Orion over the Atlantic on a route over South Africa as it zoomed into orbit. 
 
 NASA was aiming for a peak altitude of 3,600 miles on Orion's second lap around the planet, in order to give the capsule the necessary momentum for a scorchingly high-speed re-entry over the Pacific. Engineers want to see how the heat shield — the largest of its kind ever built — holds up when Orion comes back through the atmosphere traveling 20,000 mph and enduring 4,000 degrees. 
 
 The atmosphere at Kennedy Space Center was reminiscent of the shuttle-flying days. After more than three years since the last shuttle flight, NASA reveled in all the attention. 
 
 Roads appeared to be less jammed before dawn for try two, and NASA was uncertain how many of the estimated 27,000 invited guests returned. Nonetheless, the press site remained jammed, the hotels packed and the excitement level high. "It's a big day for the world, for people who know and like space," Bolden said, observing the crowds. 
 
 In Houston, NASA's Mission Control took over the entire operation once Orion was aloft. The flight program was loaded into Orion's computers well in advance, allowing the spacecraft to fly essentially on autopilot. Flight controllers — all shuttle veterans — could intervene in the event of an emergency breakdown. 
 
 And in the Pacific off the Mexican Baja coast, Navy ships waited for Orion's return. 
 
 The spacecraft is rigged with 1,200 sensors to gauge everything from heat to vibration to radiation. At 11 feet tall with a 16.5-foot base, Orion is bigger than the old-time Apollo capsules and, obviously, more advanced. 
 
 NASA deliberately kept astronauts off this first Orion. 
 
 Managers want to test the riskiest parts of the spacecraft — the heat shield, parachutes, various jettisoning components — before committing to a crew. In addition, on-board computers were going to endure the high-radiation Van Allen belts; engineers wondered whether they might falter. 
 
 Lockheed Martin Corp. already has begun work on a second Orion, and plans to eventually build a fleet of the capsules. The earliest that astronauts might fly on an Orion is 2021. An asteroid redirected to lunar orbit is intended for the first stop in the 2020s, followed by Mars in the 2030s. 
 
 The company handled the $370 million test flight for NASA from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, opting for the Delta IV rocket this time given its heft. It's the most powerful unmanned rocket in the U.S. right now. The entire rocket and capsule, topped by a launch abort tower, stretched 242 feet and weighed 1.6 million pounds — an "incredible monster," according to Bolden. 
 
 To push Orion farther out on future flights, NASA is developing a megarocket known as Space Launch System or SLS. The first Orion-SLS combo will fly around 2018, again without a crew to shake out the rocket. 
 
 NASA's last trip beyond low-Earth orbit in a vessel built for people was the three-man Apollo 17 in December 1972. Orion will be capable of carrying four astronauts on long hauls and as many as six on three-week hikes. 
 
 Dozens of astronauts, present and past, gathered at Kennedy for the historic send-off. One of them — Bolden — now leads NASA. 
 
 He called Mars "the ultimate destination of this generation," but said his three young granddaughters think otherwise, telling him, "Don't get hung up on Mars because there are other places to go once we get there." 
 
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 Online: 
 
 NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/orion/ 
 
 Lockheed Martin: http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/ssc/orion-eft1.html 

 KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — NASA's dream to eventually carry astronauts to Mars got off to a near-flawless start on Friday as the new Orion spacecraft blasted off from Cape Canaveral, flew 3,604 miles into space and splashed down on a "bull's-eye" in the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 The launch atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station delighted NASA, its contactors and thousands of onlookers along the coast. 
 
 Orion blasted off backlit by sunrise, right on time at 7:05 a.m. It flew to the highest point any craft built for humans has gone since Apollo, re-entered the atmosphere at 20,000 mph and, after four hours and 24 minutes, parachuted into the Pacific Ocean just a little more than a mile from its target. 
 
 "America has driven a golden spike as it crosses a bridge into the future," NASA announcer Rob Navias said after Orion gently fell into the water west of Baja California, Mexico. 
 
 For NASA, much was riding on Orion's maiden flight. Since the end of the space shuttle program in 2011, the space agency has tried to come up with a new vision for human space exploration. After an earlier rocket program was canceled, plans emerged to use the Orion capsule and another new rocket to launch astronauts into deep space in coming decades. 
 
 The Orion space capsule successfully launched into space from Kennedy Space Center on Dec. 5, 2014. The capsule rode atop the world’s most powerful rocket, the Delta IV Heavy. (Red Huber) 
 
 The Space Launch System rocket, the most powerful ever created, is expected to be ready for Orion's next test flight in 2018. NASA wants to use the SLS and Orion for manned flights around and perhaps to the moon, to Mars and to other points in the 2020s and 2030s. 
 
 "We as a species are meant to push human presence into the solar system, and this is a step in starting to do that," said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator for human exploration. 
 
 NASA, Orion builder Lockheed-Martin and the Delta's builder, United Space Alliance, "put their hearts and souls into this mission," said NASA Orion Flight Director Mike Serafin. "We became something greater than ourselves. And while this was an unmanned mission, we were all on board." 
 
 The only apparent flaw occurred after splashdown, when only three of five floatation airbags deployed fully. Still, the unmanned capsule bobbed upright and floated properly anyway. 
 
 Officials also expressed some concern about certain electronic units onboard resetting during the flight. But NASA Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer said that was not totally unexpected. 
 
 NASA and Lockheed-Martin, which built Orion, will know more when they retrieve and analyze flight recorders that collected data from 1,200 on-board sensors. Analysis will begin almost immediately. The capsule itself will be trucked back to Kennedy Space Center, arriving around Christmas. 
 
 "There was a bit of an 'Aha!' that it worked so well," Geyer said. "In that environment, with how difficult this test was, it flew right down the middle." 
 
 The liftoff appeared to reawaken excitement about space in Central Florida, as thousands of area residents and tourists gathered in Brevard County to watch the launch. 
 
 "I have always dreamed of being an astronaut," said Lizzi Gunn, 24, of Kissimmee, who watched from Kennedy Space Center. "I'm so proud of this country for doing it and deciding we are going to Mars." 
 
 Alice Chen of Seward, Alaska, said she hoped Orion would help renew interest in space from younger people. 
 
 "It was pretty incredible," Seward, 56, said of the launch. "The noise. The look. It was just a ball of fire. It was very exciting." 
 
 After a deep rumble went over the crowd, they watched the fireball disappear behind a gray December sky. 
 
 For Saul Reza of Mexico City, whose fiancée lives in Orlando, the launch signaled a potential return to a golden age of exploration. 
 
 "This is probably mankind's best chance at returning to space," he said. "It's the most important thing we are doing." 
 
 Astronauts are just as excited about NASA's next big thing. 
 
 "I think you'll be hard-pressed to find an astronaut, past, present or future, who wouldn't love to fly on Orion," said Rex Walheim, who flew on Atlantis, the last space shuttle, in 2011. 
 
 smpowers@tribune.com or 407-420-5441. msantana@tribune.com or 407-420-5256.
– After yesterday's launch was canceled amid gusts of wind and technical problems, Orion successfully blasted off at 7:05am today as thousands of people watched in Cape Canaveral. "This is Day 1 of the Mars era," said NASA administrator Charles Bolden; the space agency plans for the space capsule to carry astronauts to the Red Planet in about two decades. But for now, Orion is off on a 4.5-hour unmanned mission so it can be tested; six minutes post-launch, everything was "functioning perfectly," a NASA announcer said, as the DELTA IV Heavy rocket jettisoned its three boosters and saw its second stage ignite. Orion will orbit Earth twice at a peak altitude of 3,600 miles, farther than any spacecraft built for people since Apollo 17 in December 1972, the AP reports. NASA will study how its controls and computers function, how its electronics do in deep-space radiation, how its heat shields handle 4,000-degree re-entry temperatures, and whether the landing will be safe for humans, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Orion will eventually splash down in the ocean, around 600 miles west of Mexico's Baja California, and be recovered by the Navy before being returned to Kennedy Space Center. The next big test won't come until 2018.