These tiles help space shuttles survive the extreme temperatures (about 1200 degrees Celsius) during re-entry to Earth. LI-900 silica tiles are used for this purpose. It is made of 99.9% pure silica glass fiber. Often the volume of air inside this tile is said to be 94%. Due to the low thermal conductivity and high…
Blue Origin, a space tourism company owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, launches a commercial space station. Officials said they expect the station, dubbed ‘Orbital Reef’, to be operational by the end of this decade. The promotional material released by the company claims that the station will be a ‘mixed use business park’ in space…
February 1, 2003; The U.S. spacecraft Columbia crashed into the sky over Texas 16 minutes before it was due to return to Earth. Seven astronauts, including Kalpana Chawla, of Indian descent, have died in the crash.It was later discovered that the crash was caused by some technical glitches that occurred during the launch itself. Parts…
The most popular image in space history in the United States is from the challenger (STS-41-B) mission launched from the Kennedy Space Center on February 3, 1984. Astronaut Bruce McCandless II is engaged in the first untethered spacewalk, very high above the Earth. What frightens a man the most is the emptiness of space and…
The Buran Project was introduced by the Soviet Union in 1980 in response to the US space program. The Soviet Union spent about 20 billion rubles (275 million) on it. Construction of the Buran spacecraft began in 1980, and by 1984 the first full scale orbiter had been released. The Buran spacecraft was launched in…
