NASA’s Artemis crew set to splash down after Moon voyage

Now, all eyes will be on the performance of Orion’s heat shield, a protective barrier on the outside of the spacecraft meant to safeguard the capsule from extreme temperatures that build up during the descent through the atmosphere.

It must work to bring the crew home. There is no backup option.

During the plunge, plasma will build up on the outside of Orion and temperatures will reach nearly 5,000F (2,760C). Orion will reenter Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 25,000 miles (40,234 kilometers) per hour.

“We have high confidence in the system and the heat shield and the parachutes and recovery systems we put together,” Amit Kshatriya, NASA’s associate administrator, told reporters on Thursday.

“The engineering supports it,” Kshatriya added. “All of our ground tests supports it. Our analysis supports it. And tomorrow, the crew is going to put their lives behind that confidence.”

NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels toward the moon on April 4, 2026.
Leading up to this mission, critics such as former NASA astronaut Charles Camarda have raised concerns about the heat shield, arguing it’s not safe enough to protect the crew.

During the Artemis I mission in 2022, larger than expected chunks of the heat shield broke off during the uncrewed capsule’s descent.

NASA made the decision to fly Artemis II with the same heat shield design but altered the path Orion takes through the atmosphere to minimize how long the capsule will spend in super-extreme temperatures. For subsequent Artemis missions, the craft will get a new heat shield.

The Artemis II crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Christina Koch and Victor Glover, as well as Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.

Following their configuration of the Orion capsule for re-entry, the spacecraft will conduct a small course correction maneuver.

Just after 7:33 p.m. New York time, Orion will separate from its service module, a cylindrical piece of hardware built by the European Space Agency that has provided power and propulsion for the capsule throughout its journey through space.

On Thursday, NASA disclosed leaky valves on the module and said it would likely need to redesign hardware for future missions.

Roughly 20 minutes later, Orion will reenter Earth’s atmosphere.

As plasma builds up during Orion’s roughly 13-minute descent, NASA’s flight controllers in Mission Control will lose communications with the crew for a brief period – a standard blackout that occurs when most vehicles return home from space.

“It’s 13 minutes of things that have to go right,” Jeff Radigan, Artemis II lead flight director, told reporters on Thursday.

The crew is slated to splash down off the coast of San Diego, where they will be met by a joint team from NASA and the US Navy.

The team will help retrieve the crew from the capsule, conduct medical checkouts and then help transport them back home to their families.

“I’ve actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission,” Glover said from space.

“And one of the first press conferences, we were asked, ‘What are we looking forward to?’ And I said, ‘splash down.’”