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The US space agency is offering schools and universities a special deal on astronaut cuisine and heat tiles from the now extinct space shuttles, just over 20 dollars a pack, NASA said Monday. "The lightweight tiles protected the shuttles from extreme temperatures when the orbiters re-entered the Earth's atmosphere," NASA said in a statement. "The food, which was precooked or processed so that refrigeration is unnecessary, is ready to eat or could be prepared simply by adding water or by heating." Since the items are government property, the price to mail them was set at $23.40 for a package of...

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, better known as NASA, said in July that it had found the "smoking gun" that caused the space shuttle Columbia to break apart as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on Feb. 1: a piece of foam that had peeled off the external fuel tank and struck the shuttle's wing 1 minute and 22 seconds after liftoff. But many experts looking at the tragedy that killed seven astronauts say there is a deeper cause. They say that the metaphorical smoking gun should be painted green. Because of demands that the agency help to front for...

AG: Adhesive failure target of tunnel probe By Dave Wedge Boston Herald Chief Enterprise Reporter Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - Updated: 06:47 PM EST Attorney General Tom Reilly said today the investigation into the Big Dig tunnel collapse is focused primarily on the possible failure of adhesive anchors, a flaw detected as far back as 1999. The AG’s preliminary findings mirror a Bostonherald.com report yesterday that first identified “adhesive anchor failure” in the section of the tunnel where 38-year-old Milena Del Valle of Jamaica Plain was killed Monday night. Yesterday’s Bostonherald.com report also revealed the Mass Pike spent at least...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA managers could decide Sunday whether a piece of fabric filler sticking out from thermal tiles on space shuttle Discovery's belly needs to be plucked out by astronauts during a spacewalk this week. The gap filler, which is cracked and about an inch long, remains one of the few concerns that needs resolving before mission managers give the green light for Discovery to return to Earth in over a week. The early consensus is that it probably won't pose problems during the shuttle's re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, but engineers pulled an all-nighter to recommend what, if...

Up to five pieces of debris that could be foam insulation fell off the space shuttle Discovery's troublesome external fuel tank shortly after lift-off, according to NASA. The shuttle blasted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida at 19.38 BST. About three minutes later, three or four pieces of debris were seen flying off the fuel tank, and another popping off a bit later, said shuttle programme manager Wayne Hale. Discovery was so high by then that there wasn't enough air to accelerate the pieces into the shuttle and cause damage, he said. "That is the very raw,...

The space shuttle Discovery, now in orbit, lost part of its heat-shield as it took off from Cape Canaveral on July 26. Ominously, so did the doomed shuttle Columbia. With Discovery's insulation compromised — as Columbia's was — no one knows whether Discovery will catch fire and explode on its return trip to earth, as Columbia did in 2003. For some reason, the space shuttle's insulation-shedding problem has not been successfully corrected more than two years after Columbia's destruction, which killed all seven members of its crew in temperatures that reached more than 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The ultimate cause of...

Green For Launch Political Correctness: After 2 1/2 years and $1.4 billion spent to make the space shuttle safer, the same problem that doomed Columbia now plagues Discovery. Has environmentalism doomed the shuttle program? After the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon re-entry in 2003, a scathing report by the Columbia Accident Investigating Board noted the contributions NASA's "organization and culture" made to the shuttle disaster. But the root cause for both the disintegration of the shuttle Columbia due to thermal tiles damaged by chunks of insulating foam falling off the large external fuel tank, the earlier loss of Challenger, and...

Radar tests point to lost panel on shuttle   13:56 02 April 03   NewScientist.com news service   Tests have revealed that an object spotted falling from the space shuttle Columbia on the second day of its doomed mission was a panel of protective heat-resistant tiles. The absence of this panel would have provided a point of entry in the shuttle's left wing for the superhot gases that investigators believe got inside the craft during re-entry. The plasma melted the shuttle's aluminium frame and caused the craft to disintegrate, with the loss of all seven astronauts aboard. Radar pictures revealed the object falling...

NASA Ames in Mtn. View to Re-Test Space Shuttle Tiles (Washington-AP) -- The ceramic tiles which insulate the space shuttles from the intense heat of re-entry into Earth atmosphere reportedly will be re-tested at Ames Research Center in the Silicon Valley. The tiles were designed to protect the space shuttles from temperatures that soar to three-thousand degrees during the return from Earth orbit. According to the Washington Post the engineers at Ames will simulate the pressure, aerodynamic stress and heat of re-entry on pieces of reinforced carbon-carbon ceramic. NASA also is running tests at Ames and other centers around the...

It took forever to glue on the thermal tiles that shielded the space shuttle from the scorching heat of reentry -- nearly two man-years of work for every flight -- and the glue dried so fast that technicians had to mix a new batch after every couple of tiles. But they came up with a solution: spit in the glue so it took longer to harden.

<p>A small sample of a space shuttle tile glows during a demonstration by Kennedy Space Center's Visitor Center educationalist Jeff Lucas.</p> <p>The protective ceramic tiles on the space shuttle -- invented, designed, tested and produced in Silicon Valley -- are at the center of the investigation into what caused the Columbia disaster.</p>

Space Shuttle Tiles - A little history and some general information with links Press Release from Lockheed , May 1, 1992 SPACE SHUTTLE TILES WERE JUST THE BEGINNING FOR LOCKHEED'S AEROSPACE CERAMIC SYSTEMSSUNNYVALE, California, May 1, 1992 -- When the Space Shuttle Endeavour rockets into space on its maiden voyage, it will be protected by ceramic tiles manufactured by Lockheed Missiles & Space Company, Inc. of Sunnyvale, California. NASA's entire orbiter fleet -- Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and now Endeavour -- is protected from the searing heat of reentry by Lockheed's Reusable Surface Insulation. Endeavour will be protected with over...

An Australian astronomer in California could be a key eyewitness to solving the mystery of today's space shuttle disaster. Anthony Beasley, an Australian working at an observatory north of Los Angeles, said he saw what could be tiles falling off the Columbia as it flew over California and on its way to the scheduled landing in Florida. Most video footage and eyewitness reports of the shuttle breaking up came from witnesses in the central US state of Texas. If Beasley is correct, it indicates the shuttle began to disintegrate on the west coast above California. Beasley telephoned US television network...