For those who follow NASA’s human spaceflight program, when the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield cracked and chipped away during atmospheric reentry on the unpiloted Artemis I test flight in late 2022, ...

Two years ago next week, NASA’s Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean to wrap up what, at first glance, seemed to be a highly successful unpiloted test flight that made a return to the ...

When NASA’s Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific Ocean in December 2022 after its uncrewed Artemis I flight, engineers expected the heat shield to show wear. What they found was worse than wear.

Orion's selfie with Earth and the Moon. Credit: NASA NASA's Orion spacecraft might have successfully traveled to the Moon and back, but its equipment wasn't fully stable throughout the journey. Now, ...

NASA is sending some astronauts on a little trek out of Earth's orbit and around the moon, which is just the start of its current plans to send crewed missions back to the lunar surface. This is an ...

SpaceX’s experimental test of metallic heat shield tiles for the Starship vehicle ended in failure, with the tiles degrading rapidly under extreme thermal stress. The setback exposes a significant ...

As the Artemis II mission prepares to take off in March, a retired NASA engineer and astronaut has raised concerns about the Orion spacecraft's heat shield. The performance of the heat shield is ...

Following the first human journey around the moon in more than half a century, all eyes will be on the heat shield that will protect the crew as they return to Earth — a heat shield, which was damaged ...

The astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are preparing to launch into space on a trajectory that will make them the first humans to travel to the Moon in over half ...