[meteorite-list] Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System (TPS)

Tue Jun 28 20:40:00 EDT 2011

Replying to myself - I have just received off list an email confirming 
the KSC gift shop does indeed sell fragments of tiles.

I just googled this and found this place selling reasonable sized 
authentic tile cuttings for $23 each and with this explanation of the 
provenance, which if true, pretty much illustrates the (lack of) 
control practices I was talking about in prior posts:

"History of the Tile Material: In October 1978, D.G. Noble was assigned 
as Chief of U.S. Air Force Quality Assurance on all NASA contracts at 
Lockheed Missile and Space Systems in Sunnyvale, California. The main 
NASA contract at that time was for the production of Space Shuttle tile 
for the first Space Shuttle to fly in space, Columbia. At that time, 
Space Shuttle tile was being thrown into a large discard receptacle. 
There were no strict policies in effect at that time, precluding 
removal of anything from these receptacles. Noble's interest in the 
discarded tile was as an insulating material for a fireplace, so he 
removed enough material to accomplish this purpose. A few years later, 
a NASA representative came to Noble's home to discuss when and how he 
obtained the discarded Space Shuttle tile. NASA concluded that Noble 
had obtained the tile legally which could also be sold 
commercially.This was reaffirmed in a letter from the Inspector General 
for NASA to Michael Noble in June 22, 1994 letter from George T. 
Lenehan, Chief Counsel, Office of the Chief Counsel, for Ames Research 
Center, NASA. The Space Store legally purchased Mr. Noble's entire 
thermal tile material stock in July, 2009."

ref: http://www.thespacestore.com/spshthtiboxs1.html

Kindest wishes
Doug

-----Original Message-----
From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: robnanv at comcast.net; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 8:25 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System 
(TPS)

Superb addition to this thread Robert and welcome to the list. It is 
great for that perspective. It also would be interesting to find where 
all those "educational tiles" are ... 

Four months ago, they arrested a guy who: 

"Investigators say Abbey sold 12 tiles from the shuttle, for about $600 
to $800 each. Seven were sold to buyers outside of the country, 
Straight said. 
Abbey, 50, was booked into the Brevard County Jail on Thursday with 
bail set at $10,000, record show. He has since been released after 
posting bail." 

ref: 
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-02-11/news/os-shuttle-worker-arrested-nasa-theft20110211_1_shuttle-tiles-nasa-officials-brevard-investigators 

Now I am wondering what I saw in the KSC gift shop in December 2010. Am 
I confused or did I see some tiles, perhaps authentic? Not used (and 
thus no serial number linking them to service but otherwise the real 
deal? 

Kindest wishes 
Doug 

-----Original Message----- 
From: Robert & Nancy Veilleux <robnanv at comcast.net> 
To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com 
Sent: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 8:08 pm 
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Space Shuttle Thermal Protection System 
(TPS) 

As a fairly new subscriber to the met-list, and a meteorite(nut) 
collector. I would like to inject a few pieces of information about the 
Space Shuttle Tiles from my personal experiences with them.  

As the "other" Teacher In Space(TIS) candidate from the state of NH I 
was "given" a damaged flown Tile by NASA way back in January 1986 while 
I was attending the TIS Launch Conference (STS-51-L Challenger) in 
Florida. The tile that I received, was a black borosilicate coated high 
tempertaure tile (HRSI) that was damaged on an earlier mission of the 
space shuttle Discovery. (Each Space Shuttle carries approximately 
34,000 separate Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles. (Thirty to 100 
tiles are replaced on an orbiter after each mission.)  

In order for me to receive this tile from NASA I had to sign a four 
page security agreement form which stated more things than I can 
possibly remember at this time. Basically it stated that this tile was 
presented to me as a representative of the "Space Ambassadors" and the 
state of NH and I could not sell it to anyone, nor could I charge 
anyone to see it. I could not cut it up and give any pieces of it away 
nor sell any pieces of it. I could not give it to any person from a 
foreign country. If I was to retire from teaching within five years of 
receiving this tile I had to return it to NASA. After five years time 
had elapsed when I was to retire from teaching the tile was not my 
personal property but was to stay with the school district from which I 
retired (I hope that It is still there).  

We were given these tiles of 98.5% pure silicon dioxide to demonstrate 
the amazing thermal protection that they offer to the Space Shuttles. 
Using a blowtorch hundereds of times in schools all over NH I have 
never seen even the least bit of any fusion crust form on the tile that 
I had used. I believe that they are so pure that they never "wear out". 
However, the borosilicate coating on the tiles does appears to wear 
thin after repeated use and may crack and flake and be the cause of 
replacing numerous tiles for each mission. This repeated heating and 
cooling did cause the tile to discolor from the very black tile to a 
grey color after repeated use. This can also be seen on the underside 
of any of the space shuttles with the newer replaced black tiles 
standing out from the grey tiles that have gone through numerous launch 
and re-entry missions. So for those of you who dream of buying a tile 
 from NASA I would say that your chances are about as good as buying 
some of the 842 pounds of lunar rocks and soil samples so staunchly 
discussed as of recent.  

NASA Has had a program in place for many years where they do furnish 
tiles to museums, educational and academic institutions etc. For 
educational purposes and if you want to see all its "NASAese" go to any 
of the following: 
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/oia/nasaonly/itransition/Shuttle_Tiles_Disposition_Plan.pdf  
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Shuttle_Tiles_Educator_Guides.html  
http://space.about.com/b/2010/12/03/schools-can-order-space-shuttle-tiles-for-educational-use.htm  

Since my retirement from full time teaching I now work part-time at the 
McAuliffe Shepard Discovery Center in Concord NH where we are also an 
NASA Educational Resource Center and have received two HRSI black tiles 
 from NASA for demonstration purposes. When we use them we do use the 
recommended cotton gloves to handle them and are careful not to damage 
them. I would close by stating that calling these "tiles" is like 
calling a piece of styofoam heavy, for the typical six inch square tile 
weighs no more than a few ounces (50-60 g) depending on the thickness 
of the particular tile. In Fact I will never forget the day that one 
very unknowelgable colleagues when first presented the chance to hold a 
tile in his hand decided to rap it with his knuckle and promptly crack 
the very delicate borosilicate coating rendering the tile as damaged 
goods. A very dramatic demonstration of why a space shuttle is never 
launched during a rain storm.  

So any individual who is questing to get a shuttle tile to add to their 
collection of space memoribilia I suggest you do as I have done and buy 
one from the Buran Space Shuttle Shop.  

Robert A. Veilleux  
Planetarium Educator  
MCauliffe Shepard Discovery Center  
2 Institute Drive  
Concord, NH 03301   
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