Former NASA Astronaut Charles Camarda on the Artemis II Heatshield Decision

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2 points·nickvec··4 comments

The thing I hate about this is the lack of accountability on both sides.

We are going to find out, empirically, if just-ship-it-culture at NASA is a rampant problem in ~6 hours; If everything is fine at splashdown, we deserve a follow-up on why their expert analysis were wrong. And a simple explanation is not satisfactory. Their entire 13 page document as we have here needs to be sent up the flagpole of shame, with inline comments on how they were making wrong assumptions.

If disaster, then NASA is to do the same, but with 10,000x detail.

There is no middle ground that makes sense.

For the sake of the astronauts onboard Artemis, I hope they make it home safe. Nonetheless, pretty disgusted to see NASA effectively playing God with human lives at stake.

It’s probable that astronauts on Artemis II know a lot more about the situation than we do — probably(?) even having read the Camarda document. Is NASA really “playing God” at that point or are adults making decisions based on their personal risk tolerances?

It’s not like they’re handcuffing convicts to the spacecraft because all the free people declined to go up.

Good point. Guess it depends on how privy the four astronauts are to the Camarda document, etc.

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