Thousands of man hours [were spent] in developing new techniques so that foam in part and other components of the flight vehicle do not come loose during supersonic flight in the atmosphere as the orbiter climbs to orbit,

Thousands of man hours [were spent] in developing new techniques so that foam in part and other components of the flight vehicle do not come loose during supersonic flight in the atmosphere as the orbiter climbs to orbit.

We've been concentrating ... on the foam application, so we've put a lower priority on the engine cutoff sensor, but it has been on the list of things to do.

If you think about all of the components of a shuttle, all of the thousands of little things, combined with the weather, the probability of everything working is pretty much zero.

Inside is foam that acts like a sponge, when they're rolled up and air is forced out they're compact. To inflate, you unfurl it, open the valve and the action of the foam expanding acts like inhaling air, and it self-inflates.

He spent hours and hours sifting through different sites.