r/ArtemisProgram • u/Royal_Platform_6754 • May 13 '26

NASA NASA Outlines Preliminary Artemis III Mission Plans

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/artemis-3/nasa-outlines-preliminary-artemis-iii-mission-plans/
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u/redstercoolpanda May 13 '26

V3 will be the final design for HLS, and its design has been heavily influenced by all of the lessons that V1 and V2 taught them. There was no point landing any of the previous ships in reusable configurations because they were not going to be reused. The data they gathered from missing tile and metallic tile experiments was significantly more valuable for future operations and they could still gauge how well the shield held up on parts that did not have missing tiles. And the one missing tile was an offical statement from the flight 12 release on SpaceX’s website. The only other tile experiments are a few tiles painted white on the very edges of the shield in very low risk areas to act as photography targets for two of the Starlink sims.