Aerospace personnel have conducted extensive testing of foam debris in support of the Space Shuttle Systems Engineering and Integration Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center. These tests began in support of STS-114 return-to-flight activity, but expanded in depth and scope for STS-121 and beyond. Here, Brian Hardy of Laboratory Operations prepares external-tank foam samples for combined environments testing.
Matt Eby, Vehicle Systems Division, and John Brekke, Space Launch Operations, review damage to the orbiter's thermal protection system tiles following its return from space.
Tim Graves from the Space Materials Laboratory prepares the debris impact shock cannon for testing small foam on shuttle tiles.
A foam particle striking a sample shuttle tile as photographed from a high-speed camera in a laboratory at Aerospace.