On Sun, 2 Feb 2003, Hans Ulrich Ammann wrote:
> Does anyone know how thick the insulation of the
> External Tank is? I sometimes heard that it is made
> from ground cork and polyurethane.
No, most of it is a derivative of a commercial high-temperature insulating
foam, CPR-421, a "urethane modified isocyuranate foam". They'd originally
planned to use BX-250, the same commercial spray-on closed-cell
polyurethane foam used on the later S-IIs, but the heating environment got
too severe for it. The aft dome has a different formulation for higher
heat loads, and several other foams are used in various minor roles.
Most of the foam is one inch thick; there is more in some areas.
(Caution: this is from a 1983 paper -- there may have been some change
along the way since.)
Henry Spencer
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