Artemis I and II Production Updates

The heat shield for Orion’s Artemis ll, NASA’s first crewed mission, is inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 17, 2019. The heat shield, measuring roughly 16 feet in diameter, will protect astronauts upon re-entry. The heat shield is a base titanium truss structure. Technicians will apply Avcoat, an ablative material that will provide the thermal protection needed to withstand the harsh environment of space and during re-entry. Artemis ll will confirm all of the spacecraft’s systems operate as designed in the actual environment of deep space with astronauts aboard.