{"id":9580,"date":"2026-04-10T20:29:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-confident-artemis-2-heat-shield-will-protect-crew-during-re-entry\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T20:29:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T12:29:16","slug":"nasa-confident-artemis-2-heat-shield-will-protect-crew-during-re-entry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-confident-artemis-2-heat-shield-will-protect-crew-during-re-entry\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA confident Artemis 2 heat shield will protect crew during re-entry"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_73108\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73108\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260410-heat_shield_assembly.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" class=\"size-full wp-image-73108\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260410-heat_shield_assembly.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260410-heat_shield_assembly-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73108\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Artemis 2 heat shield undergoing inspections at the Kennedy Space Center before installation on the base of the Orion capsule bringing four astronauts back to Earth Friday after a flight around the moon. The heat shield is designed to protect the craft from re-entry temperatures as high as 5,000 degrees. Image: NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When the Artemis 2 Orion crew capsule returns to Earth after flying around the moon, it will hit the discernible atmosphere some 75 miles above the Pacific Ocean at a blistering 24,000 mph, fast enough to fly from New York to London in less than 10 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Within seconds, temperatures across its 16.5-foot-wide heat shield will climb to some 5,000 degrees \u2014 half as hot as the visible surface of the sun \u2014 as the ship rapidly slows in an electrically charged fireball of atmospheric friction.<\/p>\n<p>The four astronauts on board \u2014 Artemis 2 commander Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen \u2014 are counting on the heat shield to keep them safe, in a comfortable environment, all the way through the peak heating zone before a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zG-JvBIhGFg\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have high confidence in the system, in the heat shield and the parachutes and the recovery systems we put together,\u201d Amit Kshatriya, NASA\u2019s associate administrator, said Thursday. \u201cThe engineering supports it, the Artemis 1 flight data supports it. All of our ground tests support it, our analysis supports it and tomorrow, the crew is going to put their lives behind that confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The crew and mission managers are confident, they say, despite major problems with the heat shield used during the unpiloted Artemis 1 test flight in 2022 when the Avcoat material making up the shield developed sub-surface cracks and gas pockets that blew away chunks of the protective barrier\u2019s outer \u201cchar\u201d layer.<\/p>\n<p>Based on nearly two years of tests and analysis, engineers were surprised to discover the damage was most likely caused by the Avcoat material\u2019s lack of permeability during a specific phase of the re-entry when the shield was experiencing lower external temperatures while internal layers were still extremely high, generating gas that could not escape.<\/p>\n<p>Agency managers decided to order a different heat shield design for downstream Artemis missions. But the heat shield for the Artemis 2 flight, identical to the one used with Artemis 1, was already installed. Replacing it with a new design would have delayed the mission by 18 months or more.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, NASA managers opted to launch Artemis 2 \u201cas is\u201d based on test data and an exhaustive analysis that indicated the shield would work properly if the re-entry trajectory was modified to eliminate the temperature and pressure swings that contributed to the damage seen after the Artemis 1 flight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did a tremendous amount of research, a lot of groundbreaking research in some facilities that we had not used before, and they discovered the root cause,\u201d Wiseman said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey did wind tunnel testing and laser testing and hyper-velocity testing, and they determined that if we come in with this lofted profile \u2026 that this heat shield will be safe for us to go fly.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I think all that points in the direction of goodness,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think if you, as a human being who was about to board this rocket, had sat in the meetings that we sat in and listened to the experts and gone through the data with them, you would have the same comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What went wrong with Artemis 1<\/h2>\n<p>During the Artemis 1 mission, the unpiloted capsule followed a planned \u201cskip\u201d trajectory, similar in concept to skipping a flat stone across still water. After an initial dip into the upper atmosphere, the Artemis 1 capsule skipped back out again before making its final descent to splashdown.<\/p>\n<p>The skip re-entry helps reduce the spacecraft\u2019s velocity will offering NASA a wider range of splashdown options in case bad weather makes a targeted landing site problematic.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the heat shield damage seen after the flight, the Artemis 1 re-entry was successful. The capsule landed on target and officials said had any astronauts been aboard, they would have had no problems. But the damage triggered alarm at NASA.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNASA identified more than 100 locations where ablative thermal protective material from Orion\u2019s heat shield wore away differently than expected during reentry into Earth\u2019s atmosphere,\u201d NASA\u2019s Office of Inspector General wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the heat shield successfully protected the Crew Module and its systems during the Artemis 1 mission, upon inspection after Orion\u2019s recovery, engineers noted unexpected variations in the appearance of the heat shield Avcoat \u2014 the ablative material that helps protect the capsule from the heat of reentry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpecifically, portions of the char layer wore away differently than NASA engineers predicted, cracking and breaking off the spacecraft in fragments that created a trail of debris rather than melting away as designed. The unexpected behavior of the Avcoat creates a risk that the heat shield may not sufficiently protect the capsule\u2019s systems and crew from the extreme heat of reentry on future missions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Testing revealed the damage was related to the heat shield\u2019s permeability, or rather, its lack thereof.<\/p>\n<p>Entry heating is what makes the Avcoat\u2019s outer char layer permeable enough to allow gas to escape. The Artemis 1 heat shield worked normally during its initial descent into the atmosphere, But when it climbed back out, re-entry heating eased and the outer char layer became much less permeable.<\/p>\n<p>The underlying material was still extremely hot, undergoing a process known as pyrolysis \u2014 combustion without oxygen \u2014 and generating gas that had no way to escape. Those buildups eventually blew chunks of the heat shield\u2019s outer layers away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey go back up from that first entry, they\u2019re still hot, they\u2019re still off gassing,\u201d said an engineer familiar with the investigation. \u201cThe fact that the material itself isn\u2019t permeable enough is causing that gas pressure to build up now, very rapidly, because they\u2019re still hot. But the char layer has paused.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The outer char layer, he said, is \u201cthe only part of the Artemis 1 and Artemis 2 heat shield that actually allows it to breathe, or allows it to off-gas. So once it stops, now there\u2019s no mechanism in the deeper parts of the heat shield for that gas to escape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the pressure built up, and as the capsule came back down and started reheating, the pressure was already there. All those cracks, the pockets had already formed. And now, bang, bang, bang, pop. Avcoat started sloughing off during that second entry.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_73118\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-73118\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260410-Heat_shield_2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" class=\"size-full wp-image-73118\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260410-Heat_shield_2.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/20260410-Heat_shield_2-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-73118\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Artemis 1 heat shield suffered unexpected damage during re-entry after an unpiloted test flight in 2022. Sections of its outer \u201cchar\u201d layer were blown off when internal heating generated gas that had no way to vent through that outer layer. Image: NASA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<h2>A modified re-entry trajectory should ensure good heat shield performance<\/h2>\n<p>Engineers verified in lab tests that a modified skip-entry trajectory, one with an initial dip into the upper atmosphere followed by a shorter-duration climb back out would allow the Avcoat to \u201cbreathe\u201d throughout, preventing the formation of cracks and trapped gas. An independent review team agreed with those conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Apollo engineers were aware of the Avcoat permeability issue and designed that program\u2019s heat shields accordingly. Apollo capsules also used skip re- entry trajectories and had no problems. But the Avcoat used in the Artemis heat shields was reformulated slightly, and that ended up affecting its permeability.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, the downside to the modified re-entry trajectory for Artemis 2 will reduce the distance the Orion capsule can fly to avoid bad weather in the planned splashdown zone. It also will result in higher sustained heating during the descent, but engineers say that is exactly what is needed to maintain permeability in the outer char layer and ensure good performance.<\/p>\n<p>Former astronaut Charles Camarda disagrees, strongly criticizing the \u201cfly as is\u201d decision. He argues engineers do not fully understand the root cause of the Artemis 1 heat shield damage and cannot accurately predict how the Artemis 2 heat shield will perform or whether the revised entry trajectory might have unintended consequences.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to the NASA administrator, Camarda wrote that \u201chistory shows accidents occur when organizations convince themselves they understand problems they do not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like Wiseman, Glover says he trusts the analysis of the Artemis 1 problem, saying critics \u201chaven\u2019t been in these meetings from day one and met the team and looked them in the eye and shook their hands at the ends of these meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That said, he added, \u201cI don\u2019t want to discount the things that they\u2019ve said. Any time you talk about fire, any time you talk about entry and heat shields, talk about parachutes, these are high risk things that \u2026 don\u2019t have fault tolerance built in. They have to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd so I appreciate all of that nudging and poking and prodding that they\u2019ve caused. They have made us sharpen our pencils and put more due diligence, more vigilance into that process. But I think we\u2019ve done that. And so I think the crew is comfortable because of that team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Artemis 2 heat shield undergoing inspections at the Kennedy Space Center before installation on the base of the Orion capsule bringing four astronauts back to Earth Friday after a flight around the moon. The heat shield is designed to protect the craft from re-entry temperatures as high as 5,000 degrees. Image: NASA. When the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}