Forums
L2 Sign Up
SLS/Orion
SpaceX
Commercial
ISS
International
Other
Shop
Home
Help
Tags
Calendar
Login
Register
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
Q&A Section
»
Q&A: Space Shuttle AFRSI Blanket Identification
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Down
Author
Topic: Q&A: Space Shuttle AFRSI Blanket Identification (Read 6505 times)
OrdinarySpaceNerd
Member
Posts: 1
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Liked: 0
Likes Given: 0
Q&A: Space Shuttle AFRSI Blanket Identification
«
on:
06/03/2025 06:23 am »
Hello! This will be my first post on this forum as I am in need of information, and I figured this would be one of the best forums to get it. (NASA hasn't been very cooperative...) I am a huge artifact collector as I have a love for historic artifacts, and I am currently studying Historic Preservation to hopefully someday work at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in their conservation labs. I recently purchased one of my "dream" artifacts being a couple AFRSI blankets that flew on the shuttle. I bought two, both pictured below. I talked with the seller for a couple of days; they had belonged to her late husband who bought crates of items from the Charles Bell collection, these blankets being part of that collection. I got the blankets for a steal, especially as they are very rarely sold on the internet and are very hard to get your hands on these days. She said that the blankets did not have their original tags, I suppose they had just been lost over time sadly. I figured with how much money I saved on these I could handle the task myself to find what orbiter, what mission, and what exact location these blankets came from.
The first one (the large one) measures 29.5 x 21.5" The blanket reads this: (top line): VO701 97051 = 067. (middle line): VO701 97051 = 067. (bottom line): [CE] 0727. There is tan(ish) yellow(ish) tinting on the upper side of the blanket (the angled side). The edges are worn, and the thread is very worn. This blanket also lacks any scrap stencils. Judging off location I assume it was located on the upper elevon.
The second one (the small one) measures 13 x 11.5" The blanket reads this: (top line): VO70 396376 - 151 ^. (bottom line): 340122. It has 4 holes which judging off location being the OMS pods, were used for the bolts that held on the OMS pods. The upper left hole has some brown(ish) discoloration which I can only assume is rust. The blanket has 5 scrap stencils, and the bottom left corner is very worn. In fact the whole blanket itself is very worn.
Both blankets also have a visible layer of the silicone that was used to mount the blankets and tiles to the surface of the orbiter. As I understand it, this silicone is a pretty good indicator that these blankets were flown, also judging off of the fact they are very worn and the serial numbers are barely visible makes me think that as well. As I understand it, Charles Bell mainly collected items from space shuttle Atlantis, so if it was likely to be one orbiter, I would assume it is Atlantis, but assuming wouldn't be the right move here. I am curious if any of you would happen to have any AFRSI blanket diagrams so I could pinpoint the location of my blankets and even better if anyone had any insight on what orbiter these came from. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any more questions, I am determined to rediscover the history of these blankets as they are a valuable source of space shuttle history that belong to the future generations.
Thank you all very much for your time and I really appreciate you reading this post. Please let me know if I need to make any format adjustments to better match the rules of this forum. Thank you!
Logged
Print
Pages: [
1
]
Go Up
Tags:
Forums
»
General Discussion
»
Q&A Section
»
Q&A: Space Shuttle AFRSI Blanket Identification
Advertisement
Tweets by NASASpaceflight
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
1