Orion is intended by NASA as a capsule for crew transfer from Earth to more distant locales in the Earth-Luna system. Flight profiles include Earth orbit, lunar orbit, and Earth-Luna transfer and as a lifeboat for the Lunar Gateway. Orion was also originally explored by Lockheed Martin and Bigelow Aerospace for production of a cut-down variant called Orion-Lite to be used for Low Earth Orbit crew transfer to Bigelow Aerospace space stations.
Orion is an American spacecraft, but it uses components from Europe, with ESA providing the service module (which is roughly one-half of the spacecraft and an extremely critical component).
Orion is not currently expected to be used beyond the United States Artemis program.
