By Joey RouletteCOLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 16 (Reuters) – The astronauts who flew around the moon and back in NASA’s landmark Artemis II mission said their re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere was smooth, but the mission’s commander described some charring on the Orion capsule’s critical heat shield.The four Artemis II astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean last Friday, capping a nearly 10-day test flight in which they reached the farthest distance in space any humans have gone before as their gumdrop-shaped Orion capsule sailed around the moon’s far side.AdvertisementAdvertisementSpeeding back into Earth’s atmosphere at roughly 32 times the speed of sound, the finale of the high-stakes mission was a crucial test of the Lockheed Martin-built Orion capsule before NASA plans to use it again for another pre-lunar landing flight in Earth’s orbit next year.”We came in fast, and we came in hot,” Artemis II mission commander Reid Wiseman told reporters in the crew’s first press conference since returning to Earth.In the months following the flight, NASA engineers will comb through hoards of data illustrating how well the Orion vehicle performed. They are likely to 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 the descent from space.In the 2022 Artemis I uncrewed mission, Orion’s heat shield sustained far more damage than NASA had expected, showing small cracks and some layers charred off by its re-entry, leading to an intense two-year investigation. …
