Product Details

This is an authentic piece of tile from the 1970's Space Shuttle Columbia. The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first Space Shuttle to ever fly in NASA's fleet of orbiters. NASA had to find a way to protect the space shuttle during re-entry into Earth's atmosphere since the Shuttle approaches earth's the atmosphere at about 24,000 mph.. NASA developed the thermal tile for the space shuttles and this is an original piece of thermal tile from the 1970's. Thermal tiles are made of a silicon glass and air, and can absorb temperatures of up to 2300 degrees Fahrenheit. On February 4, 2003 edition of the San Jose Mercury News, On the underbelly of Colombia on Saturday morning, there were about 26,000 tiles. They ranged from one inch to five inches in thickness and each had been specifically shaped to fit tightly, shielding the astronauts from heat during re-entry. About 70 percent were the original tiles installed on Colombia. They had worked in all 27 flights. Similar tiles had protected astronauts on more than 100 shuttle flights.PackagingThis authentic triangular piece of space shuttle tile material comes in a clear plastic protective box measuring 2 x 3 inches. It rests on the reverse side of an informational card and is visible through an outline of the space shuttle. It truly is an excellent educational item for kids and a must-have for collectors. Don't be fooled by other sites that claim they have authentic space shuttle tiles. Some of these tiles were made for the space shuttle but were never used during the production of the space shuttles. Some space shuttle tile are not even real from the other stores. Spacetoys is the space store that give you the largest selection and the best pricing