'Day 1 of the Mars era:' What Orion means for space travel

Friday's test launch of the Orion spacecraft was no small step for NASA – it was one giant leap toward putting humans beyond Earth's orbit and, eventually, on Mars.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. declared Friday to be "Day One of the Mars era" after the successful test launch of the Orion space capsule at Cape Canaveral, Texas. Bolden described Mars as "the ultimate destination of this generation," and said the Orion capsule will be the vehicle to reach that destination.

NASA's chief wasn't exaggerating when he said the Orion launch is the first step toward Mars. Part of the Orion capsule's four-and-a-half-hour mission is to pass through the Van Allen Belt, a set of radiation barriers around the planet that humans have not penetrated since the Apollo missions.

The Van Allen Belt's radiation can be hazardous to satellites and deadly to unshielded astronauts, so the Orion will have to show it can keep passengers safe from that radiation. Once scientists know the capsule can fly astronauts beyond the Van Allen Belt, they can set their sights on a mission to Mars.

A Mars landing would be a huge scientific accomplishment after more than four decades of manned space missions restricted to Earth's orbit.

It's now been more than 45 years since Neil Armstrong walked on the moon and Dec. 14 will mark the 42nd anniversary of the last human steps taken on the lunar surface. Since then scientists have mapped the human genome, discovered the Higgs boson 'God’ particle, cloned sheep and invented the iPhone. They've launched satellites, probes and rovers to explore the solar system, and they've had astronauts living in space for months at a time in the orbiting International Space Station.

But no human has left Earth's orbit in the last 42 years, and that's what NASA intends to change with its Orion program, a spiritual successor to the Apollo program that drove the original moon missions.

The Orion space capsule is designed to go farther and do more than the Apollo missions of the late 1960s and early 1970s. NASA aims to fly humans into space by 2021, with an asteroid landing planned sometime afterward and a mission to Mars penciled in for the 2030s.

The Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is the first NASA spacecraft built to leave Earth's orbit since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011.

The NASA pre-launch video "Orion: Trial by Fire" gives a full overview of the capsule's maiden flight.

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  This photo provided by NASA-TV, shows the view from the Orion spacecraft atop a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket as it climbs to orbit during the first test flight Friday Dec. 5, 2014. (AP Photo/NASA-TV)

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  Photographers follow the launch of the NASA Orion space capsule atop a Delta IV rocket, in its first unmanned orbital test flight, from the Space Launch Complex 37B pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Friday, Dec. 5, 2014. (AP / John Raoux)

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  NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. and his wife Jackie Bolden watch as the United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket, with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop, lifts off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/NASA, Bill Ingalls)