THE NEW SPACE RACE: NASA Safety Panel Concerned About Artemis IV, Future Access to LEO.
Reporting on their fourth quarter 2026 meeting today, the panel praised NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman for the many positive changes he’s making at the agency. They do have some concerns, however.
The Artemis program to return astronauts to the lunar surface scored a huge success in April with the successful Artemis II mission that flew around the Moon. Next up is Artemis III and the panel is very pleased that shortly after taking office, Isaacman modified that flight, changing it from a lunar landing mission to an earth-orbital flight to practice rendezvous and docking with test articles of the two Human Landing Systems — SpaceX’s Starship and Blue Origin’s Blue Moon MK2.
But ASAP is worried about Artemis IV, now envisioned as that first Artemis lunar landing. Not only has it been more than 50 years since NASA landed anyone on the Moon, but it was with a different type of vehicle and in comparatively safe areas closer to the equator. Artemis IV is headed to the Moon’s South Pole, an entirely dissimilar environment with steep slopes, low Sun angles, and temperature extremes.
The South Pole is where the water is. Are we going to plant another flag and come home, or are we going to stay?
