Posts: 214
From: Vienna, VA
Registered: Mar 2004

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-10-2016 03:58 PM               

---

This tile was never installed on an orbiter.

You can tell such by the view of the reverse — no Nomex felt Strain Isolation Pads (SIPs) and no RTV silicone adhesive (which is red in color).

That said, it is still considered fraud to advertise stolen government property for sale, even if the item is not stolen government property (whether this tile is actually stolen government property is a separate concern).

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-10-2016 04:08 PM               

---

Someone purchased the tile.

If the buyer was a cS reader, I would caution you about proceeding with the sale until such time the seller can verify that the tile was properly released from government property.

(I wrote the seller before the lot sold informing her of the legal situation, including ITAR violations if sold to a non-U.S. citizen and/or exported outside the country.)

Posts: 1310
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007

Posts: 873
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Jan 2014

posted 03-10-2016 04:53 PM               

---

Please educate me on this. I am well aware of the tile seizures and crackdown a few years ago but in the last year or two I have seen a dozen or more tiles sell not only on eBay but also well know auctions and even at the KSC autograph show. Most of these tiles have little or no paperwork showing there release from KSC but some do have the scrap tags.

What paperwork is proper and how are well known dealers selling tiles with no paperwork? I not sure where the lines are drawn. How do I know what tile I can buy and what tile I can not?

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 03-10-2016 05:11 PM               

---

Ideally, you should have the tile removal paperwork and the scrap tag with matching V070 numbers.

Toward the end of the space shuttle program, NASA ceased releasing the paperwork with its surplus sales, but it also ceased releasing tiles entirely (deciding to destroy and bury the material, citing public health risks and ITAR concerns).

When the program was active, it may have been possible to reference the tile's history by having someone at NASA enter the tile number into the tracking software. But that software is now archived.

Posts: 89
From: United States
Registered: Apr 2013

posted 03-10-2016 09:03 PM            

---

I live over here in the area where many of the folks who worked at KSC lived and I've seen most anything you can imagine that was used at KSC in local garage, estate sales the flea market and thrift stores. I have seen tile, parts tags and the inspectors stamps one time or another.

With a little diligence someone could build a false "scrap" or "special presentation" provenance for most anything that came off the space center. If the tile tracking database is now "archived" I doubt than any tile offered for sale with a "scrap" parts tag could be proven as stolen since it sounds like NASA has probably made retrieving the data hard to do. Just one old guy's opinion.

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

Posts: 905
From: Perth, Western Australia
Registered: Apr 2015

Posts: 873
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Jan 2014

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005

Posts: 214
From: Vienna, VA
Registered: Mar 2004

Posts: 4
From: Deptford, NJ, United States
Registered: Apr 2016

posted 05-03-2016 10:35 AM               

---

Were most tiles pre-assigned to vehicles as this example is indicating? I "thought" that TPS components were labeled with position numbers that indicated where on a particular spacecraft the item would be installed, not to which vehicle it was destined for.

I know in the beginning of the shuttle program, when Challenger was in use, that spare parts inventories were scarce and that it wasn't uncommon to cannibalize parts from one OV to ready another OV. That being said is it really likely NASA had bins of TPS tiles for each ship stockpiled? I was under the impression NASA might have a few examples of each TPS position number tile available if they were commonly replaced or they were made as needed?

If that is true than could you confirm that this tile was, in fact, for OV-099 as opposed to OV-102 or OV-103?

The seller in the listing states that the tile position number was referenced on a parts recovery list for OV-099 post 51-L but that would be the case as OV-099 would have carried a tile with that position number bonded to it during flight. This one clearly has not been utilized and my guess was surplus inventory.

Thoughts?