Some of you guys are too much.
"Orion won't get us to Mars alone, NASA is lying."
As the previous person wrote, they know their audience and they explaining it simply and drumming excitement up in the best way possible.
Administration officials have been asked repeatedly in the last few days by the media this very question and they have always replied that Orion will be paired with other modules in the future.
Quit the nitpicking and enjoy the launch.
I was glad to finally read this and its preceding post after getting frustrated with all the negative posts criticizing the way this mission has been marketed.
And I say "marketed" on purpose because I believe that one of the problems NASA has had for years is a lack of effective marketing, and I was glad to see them finally marketing this mission by saying this is how we will get to Mars.
There has been plenty of criticism of SLS and Orion as the rocket to nowhere, or what ever, so I was glad to hear NASA finally present what the ultimate destination is. We all know that it is a huge evolutionary process to actually get there, but once you have the first steps identified and you need support to move forward with limited funding, giving people vision of the reason we are needing to do this is a big help.
Contrary to many comments previously in this thread, NASA has said what is really needed. They are not hiding those additional details. They have said that Orion is primarily how we get people from the ground to BEO and back to the ground, and that there is plenty of additional hardware need for a full mission. But most people don't read those details, or care. Right now, we are trying to generate attention to the first steps in an actual flight test of Orion. With out starting there, you don't get to Mars.
When the average person finally watches people launch on the way to Mars, what will they see? Well, according to the current plan, they will see those people in an Orion spacecraft on an SLS launch vehicle. That's what they will think of as "taking us to Mars", and if we need to get people excited and willing to support future spaceflight, we need to present it to them in terms they can understand and get behind.
Lets face it - the US taxpayers pay the bills and are therefore the "customer", but unfortunately, most of them have no clue what is involved in developing space flight systems. Its a very complicated task. Most of us on this forum get that, and as an engineer in the space hardware industry, I get that. But I also get that to achieve your goals, you need to properly communicate to your audience - whether it is your customer, or your boss, or some investor that helps pay the bills, etc., you need to get the support to do the things needed to achieve the goal. And that often requires breaking down the tasks into simple, understandable steps. If you go into too much detail, or say you need an unachievable amount or resources all up front to do anything, you will get nothing.
I hope I haven't rambled too much here - its been a long day and I'm very tired, but I felt the need to add my comments.
So lets enjoy the first flight of Orion, and hope it helps generate more support and greater funding for NASA in the future so we can get where we need to be as soon as possible!