NASA Fires Off a Test Rocket It Hopes to Never Really Use

Another bit of the cancelled Constellation project just actually rocketed into the skies: A testbed Orion space capsule has followed the Ares i-X atop a fiery plume off the launchpad. But unlike Ares, Orion may actually reach space. Possibly.

Today the Orion capsule, a 16-foot diameter, 11-foot tall space ship roughly the same shape as those used to bring Apollo astronauts back to Earth in the 1960s and '70s, was catapulted into the air by rocket. After a brief parabolic trip after the solid...