India, April 14 --  After the successful return of the NASA Artemis II mission, social media users began questioning whether the Orion spacecraft had lost a part of its structure during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.

The confusion started after images from the capsule's splashdown on April 10 circulated online. Some users claimed that a portion of the heat shield appeared to be missing or damaged due to extreme heating during re-entry.

Because re-entry is one of the most intense phases of spaceflight-where spacecraft face extreme temperatures and pressure-the speculation spread quickly, raising concerns about the safety and performance of the mission hardware.

However, NASA has now addressed these claims directly and clarified ...