Artemis II aced its trial-by-fire reentry, despite some concerns that the Orion spacecraft's heat shield would not hold up, a ghostly photo of the spacecraft's underside taken soon after splashdown reveals.
NASA's preliminary post-splashdown investigation indicates that Orion's heat shield suffered minimal char loss, its ceramic tiles were uncracked, and the reflective thermal tape was still present in numerous places — ensuring that the capsule’s four-person crew was safe during their fiery plunge through Earth’s atmosphere.
