Fears the Artemis II heat shield may not be safe

1 April 2026

On the eve of the launch of NASA‘s Artemis II ten-day Moon flyby mission, Maciej Cegłowski warns that the heat shield of the Orion spacecraft and command module, which the crew will use to return to Earth’s surface, is not safe:

In a nutshell, Camarda argues that NASA is demonstrating the same dysfunction that led to the Columbia and Challenger disasters. Faced with an unexpected engineering failure, it has built toy models to convince itself that the conclusion it wants to reach (it’s safe to fly) are supported by evidence. These toy models are not grounded in physics, but because they appear to be quantitative, they create a false sense of security and understanding, an epistemic fig leaf for management to hide behind.

Cegłowski is not alone, and concerns about the re-entry vessel’s heat shield have been widely flagged in recent weeks. At this late stage in proceedings it can only be hoped NASA’s assurances that the heat shield is safe can be taken at face value.

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astronomy, science, space exploration