Orion is the first manned spacecraft NASA has built in a generation. Its aim is to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone, beginning a new era of deep space exploration. This Orion capsule at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will be part of the first mission in 2018. To ensure it’s airtight, engineers pumped in more air than it’s meant to handle, checking for weak points in its structural integrity that could endanger a crew.

Spencer Lowell