WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

In the Tile Fabrication Shop, Tony Rollins, with United Space Alliance, holds down a curtain while making a test sample of tile on a block 5-axis computerized numerical control milling machine. About 70 percent of a Space Shuttle orbiter's external surface is shielded from heat by a network of more than 24,000 tiles formed from a silica fiber compound. They are known as High-Temperature Reusable Surface Insulation (HRSI) tiles and Low-Temperature Reusable Surface Insulation (LRSI) tiles. Most HRSI tiles are 6 inches square, but may be as large as 12 inches in some areas, and 1 to 5 inches thick. LRSI tiles are generally 8 inches square, ranging from 0.2- to 1-inch thick. More advanced materials such as Flexible Insulation Blankets have replaced tiles on some upper surfaces of the orbiter.