Norion

Norion is the first planet Samus Aran visits in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The G.F.S. Olympus orbits it.

History
Though Norion is a fairly out of the way planet, it is considered important enough to house the main Galactic Federation base for its area of space. Space Pirates attack Norion, and Samus, along with Rundas, Ghor, and Gandrayda, are sent to stop the Space Pirates.

Later, a Leviathan is sent to Norion to corrupt it, but Samus manages to activate a cannon that destroys the Leviathan. Dark Samus corrupts the four Bounty Hunters here with Phazon.

Features
There is a Galactic Federation base on the surface that houses three Fedtech Plasma Generators, three landing pads, and a large control tower that controls the orbital defense cannon. The base is crafted in Jovian Steel and mounted with a large planet defense system. Relatively advanced accommodations for the Marines stationed there can be inferred, as they are at least capable enough of protecting the remote planet, and they are among the first to test PED suits, highly experimental technology in itself. The orbital defense system was capable of just barely destroying the incoming Leviathan before it impacted (largely thanks to Samus Aran), which is something that the Chozo on Tallon IV and the Luminoth of Aether were seemingly unable to take success in for reasons unknown.

Originally a barren planet, a sophisticated Federation terraforming process designed by Aurora Unit 486 has transformed Norion into a forest world.

The area of Norion visited in Metroid Prime 3 is known as Base Sector Zero, and is home to the main anti-orbital weapon on the planet.

Attack
Near the beginning of the game, Samus is told to land on Norion at the Galactic Federation stronghold. A Pirate attack is taking place there. When Samus arrives, she is told by a Federation Marine that the pirates have disenganged the Orbital Defense System of Norion and that three generators A, B and C, must be brought back up. Soon after activating generator A, Samus receives a transmission from Admiral Dane that "something big is happening." A Leviathan seed is heading out of a wormhole for Norion. Samus must bring an Orbital Defense Cannon back online to stop the seed. When Samus walks into the elevator she meets up with the other Bounty Hunters. Right as the hunters are about to bring up the cannon, Dark Samus breaks in to the control tower. Dark Samus releases a powerful burst of Phazon towards all of the hunters. All of them are knocked unconcious except for Samus. Samus is strong enough to bring the cannon back online and destroy the seed. The shot by Dark Samus corrupts all of the hunters and makes them self-produce Phazon.

Biology
Norion has no known higher life forms excluding Human colonists and invading Space Pirates. Below are a list of creatures, characters and mechanisms on Norion.
 * Aeromine
 * Aurora Unit 486
 * Berserker Knight
 * Berserker Lord
 * Crawlmine
 * Crawltank
 * Dark Samus
 * Federation Marine
 * Fleet Mechanic
 * Gandrayda
 * Ghor
 * Hopping Metroid
 * Human
 * "Jolly Roger" Drone
 * Jumpmine
 * Leviathan
 * Liquid Phazon
 * Meta Ridley
 * Metroid Hatcher
 * PED Marine
 * Pirate Aerotrooper
 * Pirate Militia
 * Pirate Trooper
 * Ridley
 * Rundas
 * Space Pirate
 * Space Pirate ATC
 * Training Drone (E3 Demo only)

Trivia

 * Although in-game the area on Norion is rather small, it can be assumed the facility is much larger in reality as when Samus uses the lift, the floor here she lands on is 4, suggesting there might be a much larger complex to be explored below or above.
 * When the N in front of Norion is removed, it spells out "Orion", a possible reference to the constellation.
 * The coordinates used to arrive at Norion in the game's intro were ".0473, -3.43, 00.336".
 * Unlike the other planets, Norion has only one removable Energy Cell. Also, it is the only planet Samus doesn't mandatorily need to revisit, unless she wants to obtain all pickups in the game.
 * Norion is also the only planet that shows Samus operating her gunship while flying from one landing spot to another; the other planets only show her gunship flying through their skies.
 * In the Metroid Prime Trilogy, the room Data Storage B contains codes which, when entered into Samus's Transmission console, reveal hidden messages from Prime's producers. The messages are present in the original version of Corruption, but there are no hints to them.
 * When Samus first enters Norion, a cutscene is played of her ship entering the atmosphere. This is only one of two instances in which the cutscene is seen, the other being the arrival on Phaaze.