Thanks. To the outside observer it seemed like the two were connected.

It's kind of like, NASA taking advantage of the Orion test flight press to get their Mars plan out there.

well, considering that Orion is intended for beyond LEO missions including Mars...

Orion is pretty unsuited for a mission as long as a Mars trip. So I doubt the spacecraft used for that would have anything to do with what they are currently calling Orion.

be my guest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_%28spacecraft%29 . Search for "Mars".

Of course, it wouldn't be the "long-term deep space habitat" module - that would be a specialized module.

The two are connected, this is a test launch of Orion, the ship meant for taking us to Mars.