Two small camera probes separated from a Starship upper stage during its 12th integrated test flight in June 2026, drifting just far enough away to photograph the vehicle’s heat-shield tiles as ...

We often tend to look at spacecraft and imagine that if anything is to go wrong with a mission, it will be so during launch. But the reality is that re-entry is far more dangerous, as it exposes the ...

A NASA Space Shuttle Orbiter re-enters the Earth's atmosphere at about 75 miles above sea level and speeds close to 17,500 mph. When slowing down to its landing speed of about 215 mph, the orbiter's ...

NASA on Wednesday defended the thermal tile system that has come under suspicion in the space shuttle Columbia disaster, saying it has worked well for many flights. The space agency was warned in a ...

Heat shield parts shed before orbiter disintegrated show "very unusual" deep scoring and pitting of surface Evidence continues to indicate that a breach in the thermal-protection system led to ...

Despite the versatility of fluoropolymers in demanding, high-performance applications under harsh environments, many of them have been classified as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and are ...