The Orion Spacecraft moves by the Vehicle Assembly Building on its approximately 22 mile journey from the Launch Abort System Facility at the Kennedy Space Center to Space Launch Complex 37B at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The test flight for Orion is scheduled to launch on Dec. 4.

NASA's new Orion spacecraft will bolt off a launch pad in Florida early next month in what could be the first step toward the human exploration of Mars.

The gum-drop shaped capsule will briefly orbit Earth, then parachute into the Pacific, where it will be retrieved by a Navy ship from San Diego.

But will anyone care?

Three years after the U.S. space shuttle program ended, NASA is struggling to grab and hold the publics attention as it introduces its next-generation manned spacecraft, a vehicle that has cost at least $6.1 billion to develop so far.

For the moment, the space agency doesnt have a compelling human story to tell about the launch, which is set for Dec. 4. Space experts said it will be six to seven years before Orion actually carries astronauts. Tight budgets, design issues and policy questions have slowed the programs development. As a result, NASA doesnt have definitive plans and clear time tables for manned trips to the moon, an asteroid or Mars.

The Orion capsule will re-enter the atmosphere than parachute into the ocean west of Baja California. Artist's rendering by NASA.

Some analysts also said NASA has not made a strong case for sending humans to Mars, a planet already being explored by rovers and satellites.

The space agency realizes it has problems, and theyre not limited to Orion.

A lot of people think that NASA doesnt even exist anymore because the space shuttle was retired, astronaut Chris Cassidy told U-T San Diego in July. We have to beat the drum loud and clear and say, No, were doing good things, were doing science, were on the space station and weve got this plan to get ourselves out of low-Earth orbit.

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Is NASA launch a mission to nowhere?