Artemis 2: Orion Survives 10-Day Deep-Space Flight and Reentry

NASA declared Artemis 2 a success: Orion carried four astronauts on a 10-day trip around the Moon and back, the first crewed flight beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo. The redesigned steeper reentry profile protected the heat shield, cutting char sites from over 100 on Artemis 1 to about nine.

• Crew: Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen
• The 1-million-km journey was the farthest crewed flight in history
• Reentry temperatures reached 1,650 °C (3,000 °F)
• Char sites dropped from 100+ after Artemis 1 to about nine