»Fiber Materials Inc
»Boeing Completes Prototype Heat Shield for NASA Orion Spacecraft
~ Boeing's baseline TPS is fabricated from Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) material
~ Fiber Materials Inc., of Biddeford, Maine, produces the material under a contract to Boeing
~ PICA is being considered for Orion's heat shield due to its proven performance on NASA's Stardust spacecraft heat shield
~ The Boeing TPS MDU consists of an integrated concept made up of multiple PICA components
~ each piece is significantly larger than typical space shuttle tiles, greatly reducing parts count and complexity