S8 Ep318: Artemis 2 Safety Concerns and SpaceX Dominance. Guest: BOB ZIMMERMAN. The Artemis 2 manned mission faces controversy over unresolved Orion heat shield damage observed during previous tests. Meanwhile, SpaceX has secured a monopoly on recent Space Force co
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 15 January 2026
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
Artemis 2 Safety Concerns and SpaceX Dominance. Guest: BOB ZIMMERMAN. The Artemis 2 manned mission faces controversy over unresolved Orion heat shield damage observed during previous tests. Meanwhile, SpaceX has secured a monopoly on recent Space Force contracts, signaling a shift toward prioritizing reliability and cost over redundancy. China has filed for 200,000 new satellites.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batchler. I welcome my good colleague longstanding Bob Zimmerman. He keeps watch |
| 0:21.9 | it behind the black. And right now we're plunging into these next weeks of concern and focus. |
| 0:28.9 | And at this point, I'd have to say wonder at the Artemis Mission and the nude administrator of NASA, Jared Isaacman, an astronaut himself, |
| 0:41.1 | a spacewalker, a jet pilot, a man of many talents. Right now, he's made a decision. |
| 0:49.6 | Bob, a very good evening to you. This is a controversial decision you've been reporting for |
| 0:53.4 | some time. What is it? It appears that, yes, Isaac Lynn apparently has made it official. The Autumn |
| 1:01.1 | 2 mission that is scheduled to launch as early as February in just a few weeks. It's supposed to |
| 1:10.6 | take four astronauts on a 10-day mission, slingshot around the moon, and then come back to Earth. |
| 1:17.9 | He has made the decision to fly that mission manned. |
| 1:21.8 | I and a lot of other people, in fact, many people who are more qualified than me by far have been arguing that there are significant engineering questions that should preclude putting people on this mission. |
| 1:34.9 | The most significant of which is the Orion Heat Shield, which on its first unmanned mission around the moon in 22, when it came back through the Earth's atmosphere, |
| 1:45.9 | significant chunks broke off unexpectedly. It experienced much greater damage as it came through |
| 1:52.8 | the atmosphere than was expected. And NASA has not fixed that problem. They're going with the same |
| 1:59.6 | heat shield design. They made a decision they'll just |
| 2:02.6 | simply change the flight trajectory as the capsule comes back. They think that will preclude the |
| 2:09.3 | problem, that will reduce the stress on the heat shield. That is an entire guess. And several |
| 2:15.4 | engineers and former astronauts have come out opposed to this decision, |
| 2:19.9 | saying you're doing the same thing you did with Challenger and Columbia. You're using |
| 2:24.8 | modeling that is not reliable to decide things are okay. The problem is that it appears that |
| 2:32.1 | Isaac has gone along with the engineers at NASA who think |
| 2:35.6 | this mission will be okay. And so at this moment in time, those four astronauts are going to |
| 2:40.5 | fly on this mission. I'm praying that nothing will go wrong. If nothing goes wrong, let's hope. |
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