Artist's rendering of Orion during Exploration Flight Test-1, the first spaceflight of America's next-generation spacecraft. A scale model of this configuration of the Orion underwent buffet/acoustic testing in Arnold Engineering Development Center's 16-foot transonic wind tunnel in support of an upcoming flight test in 2014.

Scientists and engineers in the tri-state region working on a future Mars mission will test their mettle in December with a space shot.

Officials at Arnold Engineering and Development Complex and Micro Craft in Tullahoma, Tenn., are crowing about their role, along with companies in Decatur, Tenn., and Scottsboro, Ala., in preparing and supporting the Orion spacecraft mission for its December launch.

The Dec. 4 test flight will be a four-and-a-half-hour mission that includes two orbits around Earth for the NASA Orion spacecraft, a capsule designed to take humans farther than weve ever gone before, NASA spokeswoman Rachel Kraft said Thursday.

Its the first spacecraft NASAs built since the shuttle era. Weve tested Orion and its elements extensively on the ground but theres nothing like testing it in the environment its going to face when we go to new destinations in the solar system, Kraft said.

Orion is the replacement for the space shuttles that began flying in 1981.

In Tullahoma, Jim Herron, CEO for Micro Craft Inc., formerly Alliant Techsystems, admits that the December test flight makes everyone a little nervous.

But were extremely excited about it; we were watching a video of the preview this morning, Herron said Friday.

Micro Craft built several of the wind-tunnel scale models used for aerodynamics testing. The firm also built the cases that hold the rocket motors on the Launch Abort System, designed to save the crew module should anything go wrong.

Herron said the NASA video about Orions upcoming flight shows the rockets housed in Micro Crafts cases firing as the crew module is released from the main rocket.

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Mission Mars: Experts across region instrumental in development of next generation U.S. spacecraft