good sign
NASA’s mission schedule is being adjusted as the Orion crew capsule, which will house four Artemis II astronauts during their flight around the moon, is ready. Officially, Artemis II is scheduled to launch next September, but there’s little chance it will meet that schedule.
Earlier this year, NASA officials ruled out launching Artemis II in 2024 due to some technical issues with the Orion spacecraft. Although some of these issues have now been resolved, NASA has not released meaningful updates on the most critical issues.
The issue involves the Orion spacecraft’s heat shield. During atmospheric reentry following the conclusion of the unmanned Artemis I test flight in 2022, the Orion capsule’s heat shield unexpectedly eroded and cracked, prompting an investigation by NASA engineers and an independent panel.
NASA’s Orion heat shield study spanned nearly two years. Two NASA officials announced last month that the investigation had concluded, but declined to discuss details about the root cause of the heat shield problem or the steps needed to resolve Artemis II’s problems.
These modification options ranged from doing nothing to changing the re-entry angle of the Orion spacecraft to reduce heating to physically modifying the Artemis II heat shield. The latter scenario would require NASA to disassemble the Orion spacecraft, which is already assembled and undergoing environmental testing at Kennedy Space Center. This could delay the launch of Artemis II by several years.
In August, the head of NASA’s human exploration division told Ars that the agency would postpone stacking the SLS rocket until engineers could work out the heat shield issue. There is a limit to how long solid rocket boosters can remain stacked vertically. The joints that connect each segment of the rocket motor are certified for one year. The clock doesn’t actually start running until NASA stacks the next booster segment on top of the bottom segment.
But NASA abandoned this rule for Artemis I when the booster was stacked nearly two years before the successful launch.
A NASA spokesperson told Ars on Wednesday that NASA has nothing new to share about the Orion heat shield or the changes, if any, required for the Artemis II mission. She said this information should be made public by the end of the year. At the same time, NASA may announce a new target launch date for Artemis II, likely in late 2025 or 2026.
But now that NASA has given the “go” to SLS stacking, it seems safe to rule out any major hardware changes to Artemis II’s Orion heat shield.
