Former astronaut once again blasts NASA decision to fly Artemis-2 manned

[Elderberry]

Behind the Black 1/11/2026

The opposition to NASA’s decision to fly humans in the Orion capsule around the Moon with a questionable heat shield continues. Charles Camarda, an engineer and former NASA astronaut who has repeatedly expressed concerns about that heat shield and had been invited to attend the review meeting that NASA administrator Isaacman had arranged to ease his concerns, has now revealed his concerns were not eased in the slightest by that meeting, and that the Ars Technica article by Eric Berger that suggested otherwise was wrong, and that he is still “outraged” at NASA’s bad engineering decisions.

    The rage you witnessed was my observing the exact behaviors used to construct risk and flight rationale which caused both Challenger and Columbia Accidents. Using “tools” inappropriately and then claiming results to be “Conservative.” Not to mention the reliance on Monte Carlo simulations to predict failure probabilities which were also proven to be inaccurate by orders of magnitude in my book “Mission Out of Control” which you claim to have read.

    I suggest, in the spirit of transparency, you should ask NASA to release just the “Findings” of NESC Report TI-23-01849 Volume I. Finding 1 states the analysis cannot accurately predict crack initiation and propagation at flight conditions. And there was so much more which was conveniently not presented.

More: https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/former-astronaut-once-again-blasts-nasa-decision-to-fly-artemis-2-manned/

[DefiantMassRINO]

Send the NASA administrator up on the first manned flight as a member of the crew.

In ancient times, builders were made to stand under the arches they built as the scaffolding was removed as incentive for the builders to be competent.

[BobfromWB]

Send the NASA administrator up on the first manned flight as a member of the crew.

Jarred would love still another trip into space, but someone has to oversee the agency.

Actually the heat shield was tested to failure, and they found that, at that point, the undercoatings could withstand heat and the astronauts would be safe. With what they know now, the heat shield would have to be redesigned completely; the time that takes would introduce delays, allowing the Chinese to start their colony on the Lunar South Pole instead of the US.