dunc@unc.UUCP (11/28/83)
My brother told me that a new material was to replace the tiles on the bottom of future shuttles. This material, according to him, was much easier to apply than the tiles. Does anyone know anything about this? Laura Glass Univ. of North Carolina Chapel Hill unc!dunc
hoyme@umn-cs.UUCP (Ken Hoyme) (12/03/83)
#R:unc:-632900:umn-cs:3800006:000:608 umn-cs!hoyme Dec 2 12:58:00 1983 They have developed a blanket material that is much more resistant to damage. It is currently used on the payload bay doors of the Columbia and Challenger orbiters and covers most of the white areas on Discovery. I am not aware of them replacing the higher temperature black tiles with the blankets as of yet (I could be wrong). (I was in the OPF 2 weeks ago but only saw Challenger..I was told this information by a NASA person who had been in the other bay where Discovery was being 'smoke tested', i.e. powered up for the first time at KSC). Ken Hoyme Honeywell Systems & Research Center Minneapolis