NASA's new Orion spacecraft lifted off from Florida's Cape Canaveral and rocketed to orbit Friday morning

The first test flight for a program that NASA hopes eventually will get astronauts to asteroids and Mars.

The 4½-hour, uncrewed, two-orbit flight is taking Orion farther from Earth than any craft designed for human flight has been since the Apollo 17 mission to the moon in 1972.

"The launch itself (was) just a blast," NASA Orion program manager Mark Geyer quipped on NASA TV shortly after liftoff, "as you see how well the rocket did. It was exciting to see."