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NASA Takes a Step Toward Mars With Test Launch The Orion spacecraft launched this morning. Watch the take off and have a look at images of Earth taken from orbit.

By Catherine Clifford

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NASA via Youtube
Orion Soars on First Flight Test

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.

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.

Related: Elon Musk Wants to Colonize Mars in Order to Fend Off Human Extinction
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

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