WORLDTECHNASA Safety Panel Concerned About Artemis IV, Future Access to LEO
Full credit
File:NASA Welcomes Senegal as Artemis Accords Signatory.webm / NASA Headquarters / This image or video was catalogued by NASA Headquarters of the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under Photo ID: NASA Welcomes Senegal as Artemis Accords Signatory . / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain / https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NASA_Welcomes_Senegal_as_Artemis_Accords_Signatory.webmSource pageWhat happened
NASA Safety Panel Concerned About Artemis IV, Future Access to LEO (the band of space closest to Earth, where most satellites fly), according to SpacePolicyOnline. Currently that will be a landing at the Moon’s South Pole, the first time American astronauts set foot on the Moon since 1972. ASAP has a number of concerns especially about the Human Landing Systems being built by SpaceX and Blue Origin. NASA is a space exploration and public company founded in 1958. SpaceX is a space company based in Hawthorne, and its products and services include Dragon and Falcon.
ASAP also pointed out challenges in NASA’s future low Earth orbit plans both for operations of the International Space Station and commercial replacements for it as SpaceX phases out Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft. 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.
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. Earthset, taken by the Artemis II crew as they swung around the far side of the Moon, April 6, 2026.
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. Artemis IV involves a large number of firsts.