{"id":248501,"date":"2026-01-23T21:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248501\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T21:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T21:44:07","slug":"experts-warn-that-theres-something-wrong-with-the-moon-rocket-nasa-is-about-to-launch-with-astronauts-aboard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/248501\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts Warn That There’s Something Wrong With the Moon Rocket NASA Is About to Launch With Astronauts Aboard"},"content":{"rendered":"

In less than two weeks, NASA is scheduled to launch its Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed journey to the Moon in over half a century. The Space Launch Rocket has already been rolled out to the launch pad<\/a>, setting the stage for a historic mission.<\/p>\n

While the crew won\u2019t be attempting to land on the lunar surface this time around \u2014 that milestone is reserved for Artemis 3 \u2014 it\u2019s an extremely ambitious and highly complex mission.<\/p>\n

And as CNN reports<\/a>, some experts aren\u2019t convinced of NASA\u2019s reassurances that the Orion spacecraft that will carry the astronauts is safe to use.<\/p>\n

Specifically, NASA has spent years since its successful uncrewed Artemis 1 mission studying how the extreme temperatures during reentry into the Earth\u2019s atmosphere affect Orion\u2019s heat shield.<\/p>\n

The Orion capsule sustained major damage after making its return in 2022<\/a>. It cracked and chipped as a result of the extreme conditions during reentry. <\/p>\n

Over two years after the mission concluded, NASA said it had identified the root cause<\/a>, with engineers determining that the \u201cgases generated inside the heat shield\u2019s ablative outer material called Avcoat were not able to vent and dissipate as expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis allowed pressure to build up and cracking to occur, causing some charred material to break off in several locations,\u201d the agency wrote in a December 2024 statement.<\/p>\n

Yet instead of making major material changes to the heat shield itself after the fact \u2014 the Artemis 2 heat shield was assembled and installed even before the Artemis 1 mission \u2014 NASA opted to adjust the Artemis 2 mission\u2019s flight path instead, to ensure a gentler reentry.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the data, we have decided \u2014 NASA unanimously and our decision-makers \u2014 to move forward with the current Artemis II Orion capsule and heat shield, with a modified entry trajectory,\u201d former NASA administrator Bill Nelson announced<\/a> at the time.<\/p>\n

But not everybody is convinced that the space agency has sufficiently addressed the issue ahead of its first crewed Moon mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re talking about doing is crazy,\u201d former NASA astronaut and heat shield expert Charlie Camarda told CNN.<\/p>\n

Camarda has since teamed up with several other NASA research scientists, calling on the agency to heed their warnings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have solved this problem way back when,\u201d he told the broadcaster. \u201cInstead, they keep kicking the can down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA made changes to the way it applied the special Avcoat material to the Orion capsule from a honeycomb-like structure, as applied during Apollo missions, to larger blocks in order to simplify manufacturing, testing and installing it.<\/p>\n

The material is designed to char and erode during \u201cskip reentry,\u201d a maneuver that NASA uses in which the spacecraft skips over the atmosphere like a stone before diving in. However, when it dipped back in during Artemis 1, gases built up below the heat shield, causing it to crack and break off.<\/p>\n

The space agency is adamant that its new reentry path for Artemis 2 won\u2019t result in gases building up in a similar manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe won\u2019t go as high on that skip, it\u2019ll just be a loft,\u201d Artemis flight director Rick Henfling told CNN.<\/p>\n

Still, Camarda and other former NASA astronauts and engineersare warning that there could still be danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason this is such a big deal is that when the heat shield is spalling \u2014 or you have big chunks coming off \u2014 even if the vehicle isn\u2019t destroyed, you\u2019re right at the point of incipient failure now,\u201d thermal protection materials expert and NASA veteran Dan Rasky told CNN. \u201cIt\u2019s like you\u2019re at the edge of the cliff on a foggy day.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much of a danger a cracked heat shield poses remains a subject of debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill the heat shield crack? Yes, it\u2019s going to crack,\u201d former NASA astronaut Danny Olivas, who worked on the heat shield investigation, told CNN.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Olivas is convinced that NASA did enough. Even if it were to crack, he says, the space agency built in redundancies in the form of several layers of defense below the Avcoat layer that will keep astronauts safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in my mind, there\u2019s no flight that ever takes off where you don\u2019t have a lingering doubt,\u201d he added. \u201cBut NASA really does understand what they have. They know the importance of the heat shield to crew safety, and I do believe that they\u2019ve done the job.\u201d<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s recently sworn-in administrator, Jared Isaacman, is equally convinced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have modified our reentry profile,\u201d he told CNN affiliate WESH<\/a> last week. \u201cWe have regained margin to safety, and I feel very good about that with Artemis 2.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on Artemis 2: NASA Says It\u2019s Hitting the Gas, Speedrunning Next Moon Mission<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In less than two weeks, NASA is scheduled to launch its Artemis 2 mission, the first crewed journey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-248501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}