Apollo 16 Astronaut Charlie Duke Discusses Risks of Orion Spacecraft Reentry During Artemis II Mission

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 06:23:00 +0200

In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett on OutFront, Charlie Duke, the youngest of the 12 astronauts who walked on the Moon during the Apollo program, shared insights into the intense experience awaiting the Artemis II crew as their Orion spacecraft prepares for reentry into Earth's atmosphere. Duke, who flew on Apollo 16 in 1972, described the reentry phase as the most dangerous part of the mission, where the spacecraft will encounter extreme temperatures and forces upon returning from its lunar flyby. The four-person crew of Artemis II, consisting of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, completed a historic journey around the Moon—the first crewed lunar mission since Apollo 17 in 1972. As they approach splashdown off the coast of San Diego, the focus shifts to the heat shield's performance and the crew's survival during the high-speed atmospheric plunge. Duke emphasized the physical sensations inside the capsu