Artemis I
Uncrewed 2022 lunar test that revealed Orion heat shield damage, documented in OIG report IG-24-011.
On 13 April 2026, Artemis II's pending Orion scan became the latest test of damage first seen on Artemis I, whose 2022 re-entry shed heat-shield material at more than 100 locations.
Last refreshed: 22 September 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
What heat-shield flaw from Artemis I is still unresolved after Artemis II returned safely?
Timeline for Artemis I
Mentioned in: Third radiation window closes with no data
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: Five open Orion items, no fix dates
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: Heat shield: clean eye, scan pending
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: NASA defers radiation dose to peer review
Artemis II Moon MissionMentioned in: NASA's post-mission press conference disclosed no data
Artemis II Moon MissionBackground
Artemis I was NASA's uncrewed 2022 test of the Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft on a lunar-distance mission. It was intended to validate the flight architecture before astronauts flew in Orion. Its return to Earth made the heat shield the mission's lasting technical issue, after ablative material came away at more than 100 locations.
The mission matters because it supplied the real-flight evidence against which Orion's thermal models and later safety case are judged. NASA's Office of Inspector General documented three potential heat-shield failure modes in May 2024, including Bolt erosion that could threaten crew survival. Artemis I remains the reference mission for assessing whether subsequent Orion re-entry changes address the underlying problem.
Artemis I still sets the shield test
On 10 April 2026, Artemis II used a lofted return trajectory designed after Artemis I's 2022 re-entry produced unexpected Avcoat char loss. Orion entered at 34,965 feet per second, making the revised profile the first crewed test of the problem Artemis I exposed.
On 13 April 2026, NASA said white discolouration on the returned capsule was a pyrolysis byproduct rather than liberated material. Bolt melt-through, another anomaly linked to Artemis I, remained open pending an instrumented Kennedy Space Centre scan. Artemis I therefore remains the benchmark for judging whether the revised return profile solved the earlier failure.
Artemis I exposed three heat-shield risks
In May 2024, NASA's Office of Inspector General identified material spalling, Bolt erosion and fragment risk to Orion's parachute compartment after reviewing the Artemis I heat-shield anomaly. The report said Bolt melt could allow hot-gas ingestion severe enough to cause crew loss.
Artemis I's November 2022 re-entry had shed ablative material at more than 100 locations. That result turned an uncrewed qualification flight into the evidence base for later Orion safety decisions, including the altered Artemis II return trajectory.