NASA Takes a Step Toward Mars With Test Launch

NASA took a step towards getting to the red planet today, and it's pretty awesome to watch.

This morning at 7:05 am EST, the Orion spacecraft successfully launched from NASA's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The unmanned capsule is scheduled to be in orbit for four and a half hours and then fall into the Pacific Ocean.

Related: Entrepreneurs on the Moon? NASA Takes a Step in That Direction.

Today's launch is a first test of technologies that are ultimately, one day, designed to get human beings into deep space.

Have a marvel at what Earth looks like from Orion.

Here's Earth as seen from #Orion during its flight out to a peak altitude of 3,600 miles away from the planet. pic.twitter.com/cBN0jpT2LV

— NASA (@NASA) December 5, 2014

#Orion approaches the west coast of FL. #EarthRightNow Watch the live mission coverage: http://t.co/ESXAb8kpeM pic.twitter.com/yGPtfissLT

— Johnson Space Center (@NASA_Johnson) December 5, 2014

The voyage to Mars is this generation's Apollo. Getting humans to the red planet is a quest to satisfy our existential human desire to know if we are the only living beings in the solar system. It's also, according to NASA, good for life here on Earth. Have a look at the video below.