The Digester
science

Artemis II faces fiery 14-minute reentry and parachute-only splashdown

NASA will test Orion's revised entry profile tonight after a review cleared the heat shield; the crew may face brief high G forces and will be recovered by the USS John P. Murtha.

Apr 10th 2026 · United States

Insights

  • NASA cleared Orion's revised heat shield entry profile after a technical review and said it has full confidence.
  • Reentry heating will last about 14 minutes with nominal 3.9 G peaks and possible peaks up to 7.5 G in some scenarios.
  • Orion will jettison its forward bay cover, deploy drogue parachutes then pilot chutes and mains to slow to about 20 mph at splashdown.
  • There is no backup for the parachute system, so parachute failure would cause mission failure.
  • Recovery crews from the USS John P. Murtha will extract the crew in order, transfer them by helicopter to the ship for medical checkout, and then fly them back to Houston with winds and seas forecast calm.

Sources