Word: silica
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...before Columbia or any of the three other orbiters that Rockwell International is building for NASA can undertake such projects, major problems must be overcome. One difficulty: finishing the laborious job of affixing 40,000 or so silica foam tiles to the orbiter's outer skin. These shield it from the blazing temperatures (nearly 3,000° F) that the ship will encounter when it re-enters the atmosphere and glides to a landing at either the Kennedy Space Center or Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A more serious difficulty: ironing the bugs out of the shuttle...
...Bruces are indeed paragons of piscine verisimilitude. Their gray and white polyurethane skin, sprayed with a fine-grained silica, is authentically sandpapery enough to be the envy of all the lady sharks at sea. Their eyes dart frighteningly, then-great tails are fully articulated, and their three-way stretch jaws-with head-and-shoulder roominess-are filled with three rows of pearly polyurethane teeth...