Artemis astronaut describes charring on heat shield during crew’s fiery return to Earth

By Joey Roulette

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 16 (Reuters) – Astronauts who flew around the moon and back aboard NASA’s groundbreaking Artemis II mission said their re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere was uneventful, but the mission’s commander revealed some charring of the Orion capsule’s critical heat shield.

Four Artemis II astronauts touched down in the Pacific Ocean last Friday, completing a nearly 10-day test flight in which they reached the farthest any human in space has ever gone before, as their gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule cruised on the far side of the moon.

The finale of the high-risk mission, which crashed back into Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 32 times the speed of sound, was a crucial test of the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule before NASA plans to use it again next year for another prelunar landing flight into Earth orbit.

“We came in fast and hot,” Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman told reporters at the crew’s first news conference after returning to Earth.

In the months following the flight, NASA engineers will sift through reams of data showing how well the Orion vehicle is performing. They will likely pay close attention to the capsule’s heat shield, a critical barrier that protects the crew from temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 degrees Celsius) during descent from space.

On the 2022 Artemis ⁠I uncrewed mission, Orion’s heat shield suffered much more damage than NASA expected; Some layers appeared to be charred due to small cracks and re-entry, leading to two years of intensive investigation.

NASA did not upgrade the heat shield, but did change the angle and orbit at which the Artemis II crew entered the Earth’s atmosphere to reduce heat.

Wiseman said he and mission pilot Victor Glover “saw maybe two momentary touches of coal loss” during re-entry.

When they examined the capsule on the military ship that rescued them from the ocean, Wiseman said he saw “some coal loss in what’s called the shoulder,” referring to the edge of the heat shield.

IT FALLS AT LEAST 32 TIMES THE SPEED OF SOUND

Photographs of the capsule after the return of the Artemis II crew showed an unusual white mark on the edge of the heat shield, but NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman downplayed concerns and said it behaved similarly in high-temperature ground tests.

“No parts are missing,” Isaacman told Reuters on Monday, saying he had seen underwater photos of the heat shield bobbing in the ocean shortly after the splashdown. “The heat shield performed as expected and I am very excited because we are now done with this thing.”

Glover described the crew’s reentry as “a very intense 13 minutes and 36 seconds.”

NASA officials at the time said the crew’s maximum speed on reentry was 24,664 mph (39,692 km/h), or roughly Mach 32, 130 mph below Apollo 10’s fastest human record set in 1969.

But on Thursday, Glover told reporters that Orion’s onboard displays showed they had reached a speed of Mach 38.89, or 29,839 miles per hour. He added that because velocities in space are difficult to measure, NASA may release a new number “once we figure it out.”

After atmospheric friction slowed their speed, an initial set of parachutes slowed them further as they entered the Earth’s lower atmosphere and then left ahead of the final set of parachutes, which carried them to a gentle speed of 17 miles per hour on the ocean surface.

When the first set of parachutes were cut off, Glover said: “We’re back to freefall… I’ve never BASE jumped, I’ve never skydived, but that’s what it feels like when you jump backwards off a skyscraper.”

While Orion is a capsule that sends humans to and from space and is launched from Earth on the agency’s Space Launch System rocket, a future crew will use the capsule to dock with lunar landers built by Elon Musk’s SpaceX and SpaceX. Jeff BezosBlue Origin will land them on the moon as soon as 2028, but engineering challenges with both landers could push back that date.

These landers will be tested in Earth orbit for the first time on the Artemis III mission planned for next year.

In Wiseman’s personal opinion, “They could attach the Artemis III Orion to the Space Launch System and launch it tomorrow and the crew would be in great shape.”

(Reporting by Joey Roulette; Editing by Jamie Freed)