Environmental compatibility of the all-silica rigid surface insulation

Testing has demonstrated the compatibility of the all-silica surface insulation system to a variety of space shuttle orbiter environmental aspects for launch, on-orbit, and special reentry conditions. Among the more important results are the success of the cold soak tests, which indicate the suitability of the foam/bond attachment system with a 2 mm thick foam pad for strain isolation, and the reentry temperature overshoot tests (to 1924 K), which show that this system can tolerate considerable dispersion in reentry heating environment.