Artemis Moon Mission 2026

[Hevach]

The hatch isn't on the same side as the docking windows (which are facing away from the camera here, in the slightly wider gap between the top balloons). It also has an inflatable ring around the base and five airbags around the docking tunnel to keep it upright and improve visibility.

 

[purpleivan]

Additionally, based on the widely circulated video (BBC, New York Times, MSN etc.) of the opening of the hatch from the perspective of the extraction team, there are other issues, not yet mentioned, too.
bbc.co.uk/news/videos/clyxxnz97wxo

• Grab rails that don't exist.
• Hatch opening the wrong way (hinge on left instead of the right).
• Surface material looking nothing like the real thing.

It looks like an AI image largely based on an Apollo capsule, such as that of Apollo 11 here in the National Air and Space Museum, that includes very similar features to the image circulating, that don't appear on the Orion capsule.
ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-NASM2022-05013-000003&max_w=900

Editing this post to say that looking at the Apollo capsule and the posted image, it might not even be an AI generated image, but just Photoshopped.

 

[MyMatesBrainwashed]

On the subject of AI slop, this fake image of the capsule has been circulating with the claim that the badge not being burnt shows fakery.

View attachment 89706

Could probably pick faults on the image all day but the one that jumps out to my brain is the surface that someone on the right of the image is touching looks flat rather than curved.

 

[Trailblazer]

Additionally, based on the widely circulated video (BBC, New York Times, MSN etc.) of the opening of the hatch from the perspective of the extraction team, there are other issues, not yet mentioned, too.
bbc.co.uk/news/videos/clyxxnz97wxo
View attachment 89709

View attachment 89710

• Grab rails that don't exist.
• Hatch opening the wrong way (hinge on left instead of the right).
• Surface material looking nothing like the real thing.

It looks like an AI image largely based on an Apollo capsule, such as that of Apollo 11 here in the National Air and Space Museum, that includes very similar features to the image circulating, that don't appear on the Orion capsule.
ids.si.edu/ids/deliveryService?id=NASM-NASM2022-05013-000003&max_w=900
View attachment 89711

Editing this post to say that looking at the Apollo capsule and the posted image, it might not even be an AI generated image, but just Photoshopped.

In which case I take back my comment about the grab rail - the Apollo designers made the same blunder!

 

[Mendel]

In which case I take back my comment about the grab rail - the Apollo designers made the same blunder!

View attachment 89715

I'd assume the people who put it in the museum did that

 

[Hevach]

Most of the command modules have a handle there - all of them from 9 forward have it, but 7 and 8 do not. It's present on recovery pictures as well so it wasn't added for display.

Not sure why it was omitted from 7 and 8, as it was on the drop test module, which just had dead weights inside instead of equipment and didn't even have a working hatch. I can't find images of the hatch side of Apollo 1 except during assembly and one image taken after it was disassembled - the photo of the interior just barely includes the hatch frame, the handle it it's there would be out of frame. NASA has always been extremely secretive about the wreckage of CM-12, only the hatch has been displayed to the public and there was even talk of entombing the entire thing in concrete at LC-34.

Anyway, that panel wasn't meant to be removed. Apollo didn't really do serviceable parts - if something broke it stayed broke and they had to hope it wasn't too important to get home.

 

[purpleivan]

I'd assume the people who put it in the museum did that

@Hevach beat me to saying that others have at least mounting points for the grab rails.

Apollo 12

Apollo 13

I would guess that the rails would be for the SIM bay data retrieval, but that would have been for J-series missions only (Apollo 15-17)

Some info and images of that are here.
ninfinger.org/karld/My%20Space%20Museum/simbay.htm#III

 

[JMartJr]

the claim that the badge not being burnt shows fakery.

Might be worth having for easy access when debunking the "why is the decal not charred" nonsense -- The Kapton coating (I guess they still use Kapton? The stuff conspiracy theorists call "aluminim foil" or "tin foil" in lieu of finding out what it actually is) is badly scorched and often completely removed by reentry, in this shot the place where the NASA logo was can be seen -- it was MORE susceptible to heat than the Kapton, apparently, as it is pretty much gone while the gold around it is largely untouched.

Another view of general charring of the Kapton film.

Sadly, I saved these images a few days ago for personal use and did not save the source where I found them.

 

[John J.]

On the subject of AI slop, this fake image of the capsule has been circulating

Absolutely fake. The image is a composite, and a poorly researched one at that.

It's an Apollo command module, (or at least a hoax image based on one). The Apollo capsule was last used in the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz rendezvous in 1975, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo–Soyuz.

The warship in the background is (I think) a Ticonderoga class cruiser, recognisable by its bulky forward superstructure, front surface rising vertically before angling towards the rear. USS Ticonderoga, the first of the class, was launched in 1980, commissioned 1983 (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticonderoga-class_cruiser) so no Ticonderogas were around at the time of any Apollo splashdowns.

The hoax image's capsule lacks the inflated orange flotation device around its base, visible in genuine photos of Apollo capsules being retrieved (and in photos of the retrieval of Artemis I and II).

Compare, faked image

...and photo of Artemis II Orion capsule Integrity post-splashdown,

From Wikipedia, Artemis II https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis_II, image attribution

By NASA Kennedy Space Center / NASA/James Blair - This image or video was catalogued by Kennedy Space Center of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: KSC-20260410-PH-JMB01_0004., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=188827709

Poster Mr. Nobody's image is a deliberate fake, the "concerns" it raises, groundless.
It's only possible value might be in demonstrating- if anyone shares it as a genuine photo- how willing some people are to accept ridiculous claims without doing a bare minimum of fact-checking, or critical thinking, themselves.

 

[Hevach]

Also, Apollo still had the floaties like Artemis has. Space capsules technically float on their own but they're not stable as Gus Grissom learned.