THE NEW SPACE RACE: Safety panel urges NASA to reassess Artemis mission objectives to reduce risk.
A safety panel is calling on NASA to reassess to plans for upcoming Artemis missions, arguing that the agency is packing too many objectives into each mission.
At a Jan. 30 public meeting of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), members reiterated past concerns about the number of first-time objectives planned for Artemis 3, the first crewed lunar landing of the overall campaign, and later missions.
“Each first milestone carries its own individual risk and, as these risks are compounded and aggregated, it only increases the overall risk posture for any individual flight mission,” said Bill Bray, a member of the panel. “It really begs the question, is it time for the agency to reassess the current mission objectives and its approach for Artemis 3 and beyond, with the goal to better balance the risks across all those flight tests?”
ASAP has previously expressed its concerns about the number of firsts on Artemis 3, such as in its most recent annual report released in early 2024. That report listed 13 separate firsts for the mission, mostly tied to the Starship lunar lander and new spacesuits being developed by Axiom Space.
That list has only grown since then, he noted, with changes to the heat shield for Orion. NASA announced in December that it would reformulate the Avcoat material used in the heat shield for Artemis 3 and later missions to prevent the heat shield erosion seen on the Artemis 1 reentry.
Those concerns extend beyond Artemis 3, Bray said, with later missions incorporating the lunar Gateway, the Blue Moon crewed lunar lander and a lunar rover. “Each of these elements under development and delivery requires a near-perfect program execution across a complex set of tests and milestones and, frankly, there’s very little room for failure.”
Problems with a single key element, he concluded, “will result in continued launch delays and an irregular and erratic cadence of mission flights,” an issue ASAP has also previously raised. It also creates “an increased risk posture” for Artemis missions.
Getting rid of SLS and the Lunar Gateway would remove a lot of complexity and cost but would also increase reliance on Starship — which isn’t yet ready to go.