Orion spacecraft orbital path to Moon, illustration. Orion is NASA's next spacecraft to send humans into space. Intended for use in the 2020s, it is designed to send astronauts further into space than ever before, beyond the Moon to asteroids and even Mars. The orbital path to the Moon (right) from the Earth (left) will be different to that taken by the Apollo astronauts in the 1960s and 1970s. The Orion trajectory (white arrowed line) will be a double loop around the Moon, rather than the single loop of the Apollo spacecraft. This type of trajectory uses the Moon's gravity well to help the spacecraft enter and leave lunar orbit. For illustrations of the orbits of both spacecraft, see images C046/9203 to C046/9206.