NASA's Artemis II targets fastest-ever human 40,000km/h lunar re-entry
NASA's Artemis II mission is gearing up for a truly historic moment: the fastest human re-entry ever.
The Orion spacecraft will return from the Moon at nearly 40,000km per hour, faster than any crewed spacecraft before it.
This epic descent ends with a splashdown in the Pacific and puts Orion through some seriously intense heat and forces.
Orion's heat shield burns away
During re-entry, Orion battles temperatures close to 2,800 degrees Celsius as compressed air creates a superheated plasma around it, so hot that radio signals get blocked, causing a brief blackout with ground control.
To keep everyone safe inside, Orion relies on an advanced heat shield that burns away to carry excess heat away.
Pulling this off isn't just cool science, it's a big step toward future lunar landings and even Mars missions under NASA's Artemis program.