Artemis II Heat Shield Installation

Teams install the heat shield on the Artemis II Orion spacecraft inside the high bay of the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on June 22, 2023. The 16.5-foot-wide shield will ensure the safe return of the astronauts on board as the spacecraft travels at speeds of about 25,000 miles per hour and experiences outside temperatures of nearly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Artemis II will be the first mission with astronauts under Artemis that will test and check out all of Orion’s systems needed for future crewed missions.