Independent Review Board

Led by Paul Hill (former shuttle flight director and ASAP member), the board completed its work by summer 2024 but its findings were never published. Artemis II launched without public disclosure of its conclusions.

Established after Artemis I (November 2022), when Orion's heat shield lost ablative material at 100+ locations during reentry. The board investigated the root cause: trapped gas during the skip-reentry manoeuvre cracked the Avcoat coating and ejected char fragments. Its mandate was to assess whether Orion was safe to carry crew.

NASA's decision to launch without publishing the findings creates an accountability gap. The public cannot independently verify the safety case. The crew departed relying on a trajectory change (steeper direct-descent reentry) rather than a hardware fix.