Thermal Materials Protect Priceless Personal Keepsakes

Most of us cannot comprehend the task of building something to withstand temperatures over 4,000 °F, but NASA can. The space shuttles endured such temperatures when returning to Earth’s atmosphere because of aerodynamic heating, or heating due to the combination of compression and surface friction from Earth’s atmosphere. For the vehicle to survive these conditions, NASA constructed a complex thermal protection system (TPS) for the exterior of the shuttle.