Detail View: NASA Human Spaceflight Collection:

General Description: 
RTF Shuttle Mission Imagery
Description: 
JSC2004-E-54154 (8 December 2004) --- Astronaut Joseph R. (Joe) Tanner works in an extravehicular mobility unit spacesuit inside a thermal vacuum chamber at the Johnson Space Center, testing materials, tools and techniques for repairing Space Shuttle thermal protection systems. This particular test, conducted Dec. 8, 2004, involved the application of a caulk-like tile repair material known as STA-54 in a chamber that simulates the vacuum and temperatures of space. The silicon-based ablative (burns away during reentry) material comes in two parts that must be mixed in a dispenser gun called the Cure In Place Ablator Applicator (CIPAA). Tanner dispensed the material onto a variety of test plates and tiles with simulated damage. The cured test samples will be analyzed, and some will be subjected to simulated atmospheric reentry conditions in another test chamber at JSC.
image id: 
Photo-jsc2004e54154
facet_what: 
Space Shuttle Orbiter
facet_where: 
Johnson Space Center (JSC)
facet_where: 
Washington, D.C.
facet_when: 
December 2004
facet_when_year: 
2004
UID: 
SPD-SPFLT-Photo-jsc2004e54154
original url: 
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/rtf/html/jsc2004e54154.html