Test Tile News Today

from space shuttle columbia as columbia continues to orbit the earth at an altitude of about 150 statute miles. columbia, houston, laurel, youre loud and clear on air to ground one. -the second day, i drive in to work kind of euphoric because another launch, another successful launch. you know, the flight directors office and the mission control center in houston is working with them. theyre -- everythings good. i walked into the analysis lab to start reviewing film from the launch. we...

But in the end, what we did not know was the condition of the vehicle post-strike. ♪ -returning from space, a craft that is going 17,500 miles an hour heats up gases, and very hot gases become something we call plasma. the shuttle is enveloped in this inferno, and its kind of beautiful. but obviously you want to be protected from it. -well, they came to the conclusion that the best way to deal with that was to arrange a system of tiles to cover the shuttle. -all of the black here shown is all ...

Well, they came to the conclusion that the best way to deal with that was to arrange a system of tiles to cover the shuttle. All of the black here shown is all tiles. And these tiles are made of a Silica Fiber Material which is very heatresistant. I can show you. This is a test tile. There are about 31,000 of them all together, and we hope those tiles will stay on when the orbiter comes back into the atmosphere, because otherwise the craft itself could be damaged. During the development of the S...