CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA—After a delay yesterday due to stuck cryogenic valves, NASA's Orion EFT-1 mission departed from Space Launch Complex 37B from Cape Canaveral this morning at 7:05am EST. The launch marks an important milestone: it's the first attempt since the Apollo missions ended 42 years ago to put a new spacecraft designed for manned missions beyond low earth orbit (LEO).

For NASA, Orion EFT-1 (Exploration Flight Test 1) is more than just a return to goals more ambitious than low-Earth orbit. It represents the restoration of our manned capability to explore the rest of the solar system, starting with a planned lunar rendezvous with Orion's second planned flight, EM-1 (Exploration Mission 1). Mars is the ultimate goal, but that seems like more of a dream of NASA administrators at the moment. Speaking to the media two days ago, NASA Chief Administrator Charlie Bolden and his staff made this very clear—Mars is the goal, but the steps to get there are clearly under consideration, and the team is very aware of the political and budgetary realities that it will have to overcome.

Former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver spoke more pessimistically about both EFT-1 and NASA's upcoming Orion-based Mars plans in a Bloomberg interview earlier this week. "This is a test of flight that'll go for four hours, go no father than certainly satellites we launch all the time, on a commercial rocket we've launched many times, testing a heat shield which is very likely not to be used in 20 years when we actually go to Mars," she said. "I understand NASA likes to launch things; this is something the contractors and the politicians who've sold this missions to the Congress have decided they would like to proceed with, but it's not something that in my view is be best use of NASA resources."

The rocket Garver mentions that powered EFT-1 to orbit this morning is a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy, the largest American rocket currently in production. This first flight of Orion was an unmanned test flight, which was planned to last for two orbits before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean. Programmed flight time is 4 hours, 23 minutes, reaching an altitude of 5,790 kilometers (about 3,600 miles), fifteen times higher than the 260 mile altitude of the International Space Station.

Reentering the Earth's atmosphere at 32,000 km/h (about 20,000 miles per hour) to simulate the stresses of returning from the Moon or deep space, Orion will experience temperatures of up to 2,200 degrees Celsius (about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit). This will stress the spacecraft's Avcot ablative heat shield. Other components will be tested as well—crossing the Van Allen belts tests Orion's radiation protection, and the launch abort system jettison from the crew module will be tested, along with recovery systems, parachutes, flight control, and many others.

Not every component is being tested to the same extent on this flight—for example, the service module is mostly empty with some ballast. A functional ESA-manufactured service module won't fly until Orion's second flight (EM-1 aka Exploration Mission 1) in 2018.

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A Delta IV Heavy launch has a different feel compared to a Space Shuttle launch (see Ars' coverage of STS-135). The solid rocket boosters of the Space Shuttle provide a massive smoke trail in addition to the tongues of flame, while the Delta IV Heavy is powered solely by cryogenic-fueled RS-68 engines, which mostly produce superheated steam as exhaust. But being parked at the NASA Causeway is still a major experience as the rumble of the launch washes over you.

We soaked up the humidity before sunrise, camped out with the hordes of space enthusiasts for hours in the dark on the causeway, less than four miles from SLC-37B, waiting for the Delta IV Heavy carrying Orion EFT-1 to lift off. Countdown proceeded through several built-in holds, then finally reached the last GO for launch. Five seconds before liftoff, the engines ignited, the pad was engulfed in flame, T minus zero hit, and Orion crawled slowly into the sky as a tremendous rumble came over us several seconds later.

Thirteen seconds after launch, the Delta IV Heavy maneuvered to the correct azimuth, and with increasing speed, it soared into the sky.

Ninety seconds later, the Delta IV Heavy was pushing into the clouds, turning into a trio of bright points in the sky before vanishing entirely from sight. We turned to the NASA feed after Orion was too high to see with the naked eye; not quite four minutes later, the two Common Booster Core (CBC) side boosters were expended and separated. About ninety seconds after that, the remaining CBC was expended and separated, the second stage took over, the protective fairings that shrouded the actual spacecraft for the ascent through the atmosphere jettisoned, and Orion was on its way into space.

It's something every space enthusiast should experience.

Update: The Orion spacecraft has splashed down in the Pacific nominal to profile and right on schedule, at 11:29am EST. Recovery operations are underway right now, and you can follow the procedure live on NASA TV as the capsule is brought aboard the Navy's USS Anchorage. Once aboard, the spacecraft will be transported to San Diego, and from there will eventually be flown back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for post-mission analysis.

"Today was a great day for America," said NASA Flight Director Mike Sarafin from the Flight Control Room at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as NASA's official broadcast wound down, signing off by concluding, "We were all on board Orion."