ABLATION ANALYSIS OF THE SHUTTLE ORBITER OXIDATION PROTECTED REINFORCED CARBON-CARBON

Reusable, oxidation-protected reinforced carbon-carbon has been succes sfully flown on all Shuttle Orbiter flights. Thermal testing of the si licon carbide-coated, reinforced carbon-carbon to determine its oxidat ion characteristics has been performed in convective (plasma Arc-Jet) heating facilities. surface sealant mass Loss was characterized as a f unction of temperature and pressure. High-temperature testing was perf ormed to develop coating recession correlations for predicting perform ance at the over-temperature flight conditions associated with abort t rajectories. Methods for using these test data to establish multimissi on reuse (i.e., mission life) and single mission limits are presented.