NASA Expert Calls Artemis II Reentry Strategy 'Irresponsible'

The Artemis II crew has already done the hard part ... or so it seemed. They survived liftoff, passed through radiation fields, broke the all-time record for how far humans have traveled from Earth, and watched a solar eclipse from behind the Moon. Now they're almost home.

And a former NASA astronaut says coming home might be the most dangerous part of all.

The Artemis II spacecraft is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego on Friday at approximately 8:07 p.m. ET. But before that, the crew — commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen — must survive reentry: the phase of flight in which their capsule plunges back into Earth's atmosphere at more than 25,000 miles per hour, heating the exterior of the spacecraft to more than 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Standing between the crew and that heat is a shield that was badly damaged on the last mission.

What Happened to the Artemis II Heat Shield?

When the uncrewed Artemis I capsule returned from its test flight around the Moon in 2022, mission teams found the heat shield had come back with concerning pockmarks and cracking. An investigation determined that gases generated inside the shield's outer material couldn't vent properly during reentry, causing pressure to build, cracks to form and charred material to break off in multiple locations.

The problem: by the time those findings were complete, the heat shield was already installed on the Artemis II capsule, and it was too late to change it. NASA's solution was not to replace the shield, but to alter the spacecraft's reentry trajectory, using what's called a "loft" approach rather than the "skip" reentry used on Artemis I, in hopes of creating more favorable heating conditions and limiting further cracking.

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Artemis II is almost home. More on the heat shield that has to hold: Coming home from the moon means extreme speed and blistering heat. CNN’s Tom Foreman explains what happens at reentry and why the heat shield is mission-critical. #orion #artemis2026

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Why Reentry is the Most Dangerous Part

Former NASA astronaut Charlie Camarda — a heat shield expert who flew on the first Space Shuttle mission after the 2003 Columbia disaster — does not believe that fix is sufficient. He was invited to a NASA headquarters meeting in January to review the agency's investigation data and walked away unconvinced.

Camarda claims the tools NASA used to analyze the problem are inadequate, comparing them to the tools that failed to catch the issues behind both the Challenger and Columbia disasters. He believes the root cause of the Artemis I heat shield damage was an inherent structural failure — not simply a matter of reentry angle — and that NASA's modified trajectory does not solve the underlying problem.

"The fact that we decided to fly crew on a vehicle with a known defective heat shield is irresponsible," Camarda said. "We are trying to prevent the loss of the Artemis II crew. History does not repeat because engineers forget equations. It repeats because organizations forget how to listen to them."

Camarda emphasized he is not predicting a catastrophic failure. He thinks the mission will likely return home safely. His deeper fear is that a safe landing will be treated as validation that NASA's decision-making is sound, setting the stage for a more serious failure down the road.

NASA Officials Weigh In

NASA officials have repeatedly maintained that safety is the top priority and that the agency fully understands the heat shield's limitations. Former NASA Associate Administrator James Free said engineers determined the crew is "well within" safety parameters under the modified trajectory.

"It's all how you enter the atmosphere," Free said. "If you limit the angle at which it comes in, that limits how far downrange you can go, which limits your landing attempts — but you still stay within the temperature limits you need for Artemis II, and that's what they have planned."

Pilot Victor Glover acknowledged the weight of the moment from aboard the spacecraft this week.

"I'll be honest and say, I've actually been thinking about entry since April 3, 2023, when we got assigned to this mission," Glover said. "We have to get back. There's so much data that you've seen already, but all the good stuff is coming back with us."

Splashdown is scheduled for approximately 8:07 p.m. ET Friday off the coast of San Diego. A diver will immediately photograph the heat shield from below upon recovery — providing the first evidence of how it performed.