NASA's Moon Capsule Suffered Extensive Damage During 2022's Test Flight

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Washington Post:

The heat shield of the Orion spacecraft intended one day to carry astronauts to the moon under NASA's Artemis program suffered unexpected damage in more than 100 places as the spacecraft returned to Earth during an uncrewed test flight in 2022, according to a watchdog report released late Wednesday.

While the capsule withstood the fiery tumult of reentry, when temperatures reached 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit as it plunged through the atmosphere at nearly 25,000 mph, the damage the heat shield suffered was far greater than NASA engineers had expected and more severe than NASA had revealed previously. Photos of the heat shield in the report showed gouges that look like small potholes. 'Should the same issue occur on future Artemis missions, it could lead to the loss of the vehicle or crew,' the report, by NASA's inspector general, concluded...

The IG report provides the most detailed description of the issue to date. It also highlighted other problems with the spacecraft that could create significant challenges for the space agency as it seeks to return humans to the lunar surface for the first time in more than 50 years.

Portions of the heat shield 'wore away differently than NASA engineers predicted, cracking and breaking off the spacecraft in fragments that created a trail of debris rather than melting away as designed,' according to the report. That, in turn, 'could have caused enough structural damage to cause one of Orion's parachutes to fail....' In addition to the heat shield erosion on Orion, which is manufactured by Lockheed Martin, the IG said several bolts on the crew module 'experienced an exposed gap that allowed for increased heating to the bolt interior and greater than expected melting and erosion.'


Earlier this year, NASA announced the next flight for its moon program — sending a crew of four around the moon — would be delayed, according to the article. The moon-orbiting mission would now occur 'no earlier than September 2025, largely because officials wanted to study the heat shield issue further and understand why it eroded as it did.'
The article adds that this new report 'casts doubt on both NASA's rosy original assessment of the test flight' — as well as the likelihood that a lunar landing will occur by late 2026.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.