Comment by JumpCrisscross
5 days ago
> that's what "untested" means in spaceflight
Sort of. At a certain threshold, everything is untested. I’d put this closer to modified than untested—the general config was tested in Artemis I and the specific configuration in a variety of ground tests.
I'd say it's tested. It failed. Then they're flying it anyway. Wonderful stuff.
The heat shield on Artemis I didn’t fail in the sense that were there a crew they would have died
It failed testing. What you’re describing is the exact same thinking that destroyed Challenger. The O-rings are leaking, they’re not supposed to do that at all, but they’re not leaking enough to cause a failure....
And the next flight will use a different design. I wonder why?
Artemis II is scheduled for re-entry to Earth on April 10th. That is when the heat shield issue will be the most dangerous.
If it fails and the mission fails with loss of life while knowing it went ahead despite the IG report about the heat shield... It might be the end of NASA.
Hopefully it will return safely.
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