Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: NCFI's spray polyurethane foam insulation (SPF) was successfully used in the second stage liquid fuel tank for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Orion spacecraft launch and test flight on 5 December 2014.

"NASA and the United Launch Alliance (ULA - the Boeing and Lockheed consortium), uses our polyurethane foam insulation, specially-formulated for high temperature and extreme pressure applications, on their external liquid fuel tanks to prevent condensation and the formation of ice on the tanks that could come free and harm the main vehicle," said Clarence Tolbert, vice president with NCFI. "The fuel tanks of the Delta IV Heavy three-core rocket contain liquid hydrogen and oxygen and are actually a tank within a tank covered by a skin onto which our foam insulation is spray applied. Nothing covers the foam, so it's pretty obvious as the golden yellow, or slightly orange acreage on the exterior of Orion."

Orion's first test flight took the unmanned vehicle to an altitude of just under 6000km with a re-entry speed of up to 32,000km/hr and temperatures up to 2200°C. Previously NCFI worked on the space shuttle's External Tank Programme.

US: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM) will test integrated multi-layer insulation (IMLI) in 2015. Quest Thermal Group LLC will manufacture the insulation under a subcontract from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. Quest is developing the technology under small business innovative research (SBIR) contracts to NASA.

"Conventional insulation was necessary for the GPIM spacecraft, and now we can fly a section of the IMLI at no extra cost to the program and prove it for operational use," said Jim Oschmann, vice president and general manager for Ball's Civil Space and Technology business unit.

GPIM is a project for NASA's Technology Mission Demonstration (TDM) program managed by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). The primary purpose of the mission is to demonstrate the viability of an alternative propulsion system for spacecraft other than hydrazine by flying a 'green' propulsion system.