Insulation 6 Super-Shuttle Tile – FT

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: The Space shuttle has tiles on the bottom of it. These were used as insulators. Why? Because as the shuttle would enter the atmosphere, temperatures would hit 6000ºF.

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: Colonel Husband was captain of the 2003 Shuttle Mission—it blew up. Everything was blown into small pieces and scattered over several states. 

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: There was no problem going up into space for the Columbia Shuttle. However, the heat from re-entry went into the Shuttle and the resulting explosion blew it up and all seven astronauts died.

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: Two years after the Columbia disaster, NASA  developed a 50-foot tall robot that would come out of the Shuttle and make a laser scan of all the tiles before re-entry.

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: The Thermal Protection System (TPS) is the insulation that protected the Shuttle from the heat of re-entry.

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: The Shuttle is as big as a house! 1220 feet long by 780 feet wide!

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: The Shuttle had heat tiles made of heavy granite rock fibers.

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: The Shuttle had 243 silica tiles for its iron frame giving the Shuttle the nick-name, “The Flying Brickyard.”

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: Each of the 24,300 tiles was made from sand and was lighter than the styrofoam in boogie boards.

SPACE SHUTTLE INTRO AND DISASTER: The tiles had to be glued on one-by-one by hand by college students. It was sometimes a 30-hour process! It took so long to apply them that the first Shuttle Columbia mission was delayed 2 years!