On April 10, Artemis II – humanity’s first mission to the Moon in more than half a century – will draw to a close when the Orion capsule carrying four crew members detaches from its service module.
The capsule will then make a fiery plunge towards Earth, travelling at a speed of 25,000 miles per hour. As it plummets through the atmosphere, Orion’s heat shield will encounter temperatures of more than 1,600°C as the spacecraft decelerates rapidly.
