Ahead of NASA's First Crewed Mission In 50 Years, Experts Flag Concerns Over Its Heat Shield

As four astronauts are set to be part of NASA’s first crewed mission to the Moon in more than 50 years, experts have flagged concerns over the special coating applied to the bottom part of the spacecraft, called the heat shield.

On January 17, NASA moved its giant Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft to the launch pad.

The rollout, which took up to 12 hours, saw the massive orange-and-white rocket slowly transported from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The move allows NASA to begin a series of final tests ahead of the Artemis II mission. It is likely to finally take off on February 6.

The mission would carry three American astronauts and one Canadian on a journey around the

Moon. The crew will not land on the lunar surface but will fly around it before returning to Earth. The mission is expected to last about 10 days.

Dr. Danny Olivas, a former NASA astronaut who served on a space agency-appointed independent review team that investigated the incident, said: “This is a deviant heat shield. There’s no doubt about it: This is not the heat shield that NASA would want to give its astronauts.”

According to CNN, the heat shield is a crucial piece of hardware designed to protect the astronauts from extreme temperatures as they’re descending back to Earth during the final stretch of their moon-bound mission called Artemis II.

The heat shield is almost identical to the heat shield flown on Artemis I, an uncrewed 2022 test flight. According to CNN, the prior mission’s Orion vehicle returned from space with a heat shield pockmarked by unexpected damage.

NASA had found chunks of the heat shield had broken off, leaving divots in the charred Avcoat material (designed to char and erode in a controlled manner as the spacecraft comes returns into the thick inner band of Earth’s atmosphere while still traveling more than 30 times the speed of sound). This was unusual as Avcoat layer is meant to erode in a controlled manner as it heats.

NASA had disclosed the issue months after Orion returned from space in 2022.

According to a statement by NASA on Friday, the agency “considered all aspects” when making that decision, noting there is also “uncertainty that comes with the development and qualification of the processes of changing the manufacturing process of the Avcoat ablator blocks”.

Blaine Brown, director of Orion Spacecraft Mechanical Systems at Lockheed Martin Space said: ““We support NASA’s decision to fly the Artemis II mission with its current heat shield and are committed to seeing Orion safely launch and return on its historic mission to the Moon with crew onboard.”

Meanwhile, Olivas said: “I think in my mind, there’s no flight that ever takes off where you don’t have a lingering doubt. But NASA really does understand what they have. They know the importance of the heat shield to crew safety, and I do believe that they’ve done the job.”

According to CNN, the Orion capsules built for the Artemis missions abandoned the Avcoat honeycomb structure in favor of a heat shield constructed using large blocks of the material.

Heat Shield expert and former NASA astronaut Dr Charlie Camarda said: “What they’re talking about doing is crazy.”

According to CNN, Camarda — who was also a member of the first space shuttle crew to launch after the 2003 Columbia disaster — is among a group of former NASA employees who do not believe that the space agency should put astronauts on board the upcoming lunar excursion.

At a press conference in 2024, NASA said heat shields produced for future Artemis missions will be manufactured with upgraded techniques.