The Orion spacecraft flew Tuesday morning and it looked pretty spectacular

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  At 7am ET on Tuesday morning, a Peacekeeper missile launched a boilerplate Orion spacecraft.

It went fast. Early on Tuesday morning, a former Peacekeeper missile lofted a boilerplate Orion spacecraft to an altitude just shy of 10km before a powerful escape motor fired. Amid the smoke, the escape system pulled the NASA spacecraft rapidly away from the Peacekeeper booster. The entire test lasted 3 minutes and 13 seconds.

"Everything we've seen so far looks great," said Orion program manager Mark Kirasich, about two hours after the test following a very preliminary review of data.

In many ways, this was an odd-looking test. The stubby Peacekeeper missile looked nothing like a tall, brawny rocket-such as the Space Launch System or the Delta IV Heavy-capable of launching Orion into space. After the escape system fired and Orion was released, the vehicle tumbled and plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean in what was less than a heartwarming scene.

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