NASA made officially announced the name of its moon vehicle yesterday -- a week ahead of schedule. The reason for the early reveal was because an American astronaut on the international space station let the name slip over an open radio channel. "We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name... Orion," said astronaut Jeffrey Williams. NASA officials denied the Orion name shortly after the leak, but later confirmed the name.

The modern day equivalent of an Apollo capsule, Orion is the vehicle NASA's Constellation Program is developing to carry a new generation of astronauts back to the Moon and later to Mars. Orion will succeed the space shuttle as the space agency's primary craft for crewed exploration. Orion's first flight with astronauts on-board is planned for no later than 2014 to the International Space Station. Its first flight to the Moon is planned for no later than 2020.