Find Any Photo
Artemis II Recovery Operations
Download full sizeView at the archive

Artemis II Recovery Operations

The Artemis II Orion crew module is lifted from its recovery fixture for inspection and engineering imagery after being offloaded from the USS John P. Murtha at Naval Base San Diego on April 18, 2026. The recessed areas, or smaller concentric circles, seen on the heat shield are associated with the separation bolts that connect the crew module with the service module. The larger circular patterns are formed due to compression pad material used within this location of the spacecraft, creating flow disturbances caused by extreme aerodynamic and thermal airflow during reentry. This causes increased heating locally and therefore Avcoat ablator thickness is increased in these areas by design.

Date
2026-04-18
Photographer / author
NASA/Kevin Davis
Collection
KSC
Archive
NASA Image and Video Library
Type
photograph

Public domainsafest

Reason: a NASA work: not copyrighted in the United States.

Read from: NASA media usage guidelines: NASA material is not copyrighted in the US unless noted; no third-party credit or mark found.

Credit line

"Artemis II Recovery Operations" (2026-04-18). NASA/KSC/NASA/Kevin Davis. Public domain. https://images.nasa.gov/details/KSC-20260418-KED03-0009

What public domain means here

Need photos for a whole script? Add Find Any Photo to Claude and ask for this one by its id: 10821.

More like this