Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Artwork depicts Orion spacecraft plowing through Earth’s atmosphere at high speed.
Image credit: NASA

The high-speed, safe return to Earth from lunar distance of the Artemis II crew depends on the thermal protection system of Orion’s crew module. It must endure blistering temperatures to keep crew members safe.

However, following the flight of the uncrewed Artemis I lunar flight test in late 2022, it was found that ablative thermal protective material had unexpectedly chipped away from the Orion heat shield during its plunge through Earth’s atmosphere.

Root cause

Image credit: NASA OIG

But in a post-flight analysis of the Artemis 1 heat shield, NASA identified more than 100 locations where ablative thermal protective material was liberated during its speedy reentry.

NASA, along with contractors and an independent review team, an investigation was launched to establish the technical cause of the issue. An analysis was done, including over a 100 tests at unique facilities across the country.

For more details, go to my new Space.com story — The Artemis 1 moon mission had a heat shield issue. Here’s why NASA doesn’t think it will happen again on Artemis 2 – at:

https://www.space.com/space-exploration/artemis/the-artemis-1-moon-mission-had-a-heat-shield-issue-heres-why-nasa-doesnt-think-it-will-happen-again-on-artemis-2