After blasting off from a launchpad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 7 a.m., the Orion spacecraft initiated its escape system less than a minute into flight, jettisoning the crew capsule to safety. “By all first accounts, it was a perfect test,” said Mark Kirasich, Orion program manager. Originally, NASA had been aiming to get astronauts to the lunar surface by 2028. The Orion spacecraft would take astronauts to the Gateway, from which they would fly to the surface of the moon by a lunar lander. NASA plans to fly with a crew around the moon in 2022, and then reach the lunar surface two years later.

Source: Washington Post July 02, 2019 11:23 UTC