In less than two weeks, NASA plans to launch the Artemis 2 mission, the first manned trip to the moon in more than half a century. A space launch rocket has been launched onto the launch pad, setting the stage for a historic mission.
While astronauts won’t be attempting to land on the lunar surface this time — that milestone is reserved for Artemis 3 — it’s an extremely ambitious and highly complex mission.
and as CNN Some experts are reportedly not convinced by NASA’s assurances that the Orion spacecraft carrying astronauts is safe to use.
Specifically, since the successful unmanned Artemis 1 mission, NASA has spent several years studying how extreme temperatures during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere affect Orion’s heat shield.
The Orion capsule suffered severe damage upon its return in 2022. It cracked and fragmented due to the extreme conditions during reentry.
More than two years after the mission ended, NASA said it had found the root cause, with engineers determining that “gases generated within the heat shield’s ablative outer material, Avcoat, were unable to vent and dissipate as expected.”
“This allowed pressure to build and rupture to occur, causing some charred material to break in multiple locations,” the agency wrote in a December 2024 statement.
However, rather than make major material changes to the heat shield itself after the fact—the Artemis 2 heat shield was assembled and installed even before the Artemis 1 mission—NASA chose to adjust the Artemis 2 mission’s flight path to ensure a gentler reentry.
“Based on these data, NASA and our policymakers have unanimously decided to proceed with the current Artemis 2 Orion capsule and heat shield with modifications to orbit,” former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson announced at the time.
But not everyone is convinced the space agency has adequately addressed the issue ahead of the first crewed mission to the moon.
“It’s crazy what they’re saying,” former NASA astronaut and heat shield expert Charlie Camada told us CNN.
Camada has since teamed up with several other NASA research scientists to call on the agency to heed their warnings.
“We should have solved this problem a long time ago,” he told the broadcaster. “Instead, they keep kicking the can down the road.”
NASA has changed the way it uses special Avcoat materials for the Orion capsule, from the honeycomb structures used during the Apollo missions to larger blocks to simplify manufacturing, testing and installation.
The material is designed to scorch and corrode during “skip reentry,” a maneuver used by NASA in which a spacecraft jumps like a rock through the atmosphere before diving back in. However, when it returned during Artemis 1, gas accumulated under the heat shield, causing it to rupture and fall off.
The space agency is confident that Artemis 2’s new reentry path will not cause gas to accumulate in a similar way.
“We’re not going to fly that high on that jump, it’s just a loft,” Artemis flight director Rick Henfling told CNN CNN.
Still, Camada and other former NASA astronauts and engineers warn there could still be dangers.
“The reason this is so important is because when the heat shield peels off, or when a chunk of material breaks off, even if the vehicle is not destroyed, it is now on the verge of early failure,” said Dan Rasky, a NASA veteran and expert in thermal shielding materials. CNN. “It’s like standing on the edge of a cliff on a foggy day.”
The extent of the danger posed by a ruptured heat shield remains a subject of debate.
“Will the heat shield rupture? Yes, it will,” said Danny Olivas, a former NASA astronaut involved in the heat shield investigation CNN.
Still, Olivas believes NASA has done enough. Even if it breaks, he said, the space agency will build redundancy in the form of multiple layers of defense beneath the Avcoat layer to keep astronauts safe.
“I don’t think there’s any flight, in my opinion, that takes off with any lingering doubts,” he added. “But NASA does know what they have. They know how important the heat shield is to crew safety, and I do believe they’ve done the job.”
Jared Isaacman, NASA’s recently sworn-in administrator, is equally convinced.
“We have revised our reentry profile,” he told CNN Affiliates western health association last week. “We’ve restored our margin of safety and I’m very pleased with Artemis 2.”
More information about Artemis 2: NASA says it’s speeding up next moon mission
