DHAKA: The Orion spacecraft has successfully launched on Friday, marking a new era in space exploration. 

The unmanned orbital test flight began with a sunrise liftoff witnessed by thousands of Nasa guests gathered at Cape Canaveral in USA for the second morning in a row.

The spacecraft is now being catapulted around the Earth twice in a 4.5 hour journey, before re-entering the atmosphere at 20,000 mph (32,000 km/h), reports the Daily Mail.

In the future, Nasa hopes to use the spacecraft to send astronauts to an asteroid in the 2020s and ultimately take them to Mars in the 2030s, report added.

However, the maiden launch of the Orion spacecraft was postponed Thursday, after a series of delays hampered efforts to blast in into space.

BDST: 1830 HRS, DEC 05, 2014