large pieces of material blew out of Orion’s heat shield during re-entry, leaving divots.

I’m not convinced that this isn’t by design. The shield should take any and all damage so the shuttle doesn’t have to. Its likely also completely unsafe to reuse a heat shield after its be used for reentry.

this is 100% down to Trump wanting either a distraction or to be able to say “well I put someone on the moon”

Ah yes, the 9 year old long-con distraction play.

Nah, I’m all about that 9001/01/01 life