NASA has sent a new spacecraft 'Orion' in the first virtual flight.

In addition to standard operations, the organizers have prepared professionals extraordinary events — during take-off the ship in the capsule with astronauts hit a bird. Engineers had to quickly assess damage and decide whether to continue the mission. As a result, damage was minimal and found the flight continued.

According to a project manager «Orion», and one of the main ideologists of the virtual launch Bob Castle (Bob Castle), such exercises in addition to develop standard procedures to reduce to a minimum the time of preparation for future launches.

Space Shuttle «Orion» being developed under the program «Constellation» (Constellation). Based on the basic configuration to establish a planned 4-bed and 6-bed apparatuses for the flight to Earth’s orbit and the Moon respectively. Lack of funding and technical difficulties led to the current American space agency specialists are developing only version for four astronauts. The first flights of «Orion» scheduled for 2015.