WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

Lockheed Martin engineers and technicians are installing the heat shield to the Orion crew module July 25, 2018, inside the Neil Armstrong Operations and Checkout Building high bay at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Orion is being prepared for Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1). The Orion spacecraft will launch atop NASA's Space Launch System rocket on its first uncrewed integrated flight. The heat shield will need to withstand temperatures of up to 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit during Orion's descent and re-entry through the Earth's atmosphere before it splashes down in the Pacific Ocean.