I saw the Space Shuttle Discovery up close at the amazing Udvar-Hazy Center in/near Washington DC. The scarred shielding tiles, partly because they are on the surface closest to visitors, were something really special - made the whole thing as an experienced object very real.

Not every other craft in the museum was built for war or commerce as there were many experimental aircraft built by hobbyists, but the shuttle was an iconic thing. I'd had shuttle toys in the 80s. Where other exhibits were more "Oh, that's cool", seeing the Discovery had a real impact on me.

If you're ever anywhere near that area, go take a look. Free entrance, $15 for parking, and you will spend hours there. It's a separate facility to the National Air and Space Museum that most people would visit in the centre of Washington DC - which is also very good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_F._Udvar-Hazy_Center#Co...

I read somewhere that NASA uses a Request Tracker system for managing activities. Perhaps that database would contain references to the appropriate documents?

https://www.bestpractical.com/rt/

I have a feeling this would be a Material Traceability DB, Due to the high Quality Assurance/Control Requirements at play.

I haven't dealt with Ceramic tracability before but I deal with steel tracability on a daily basis.

A quick primer on steel: When you buy steel from a mill, you usually get it in plates or sections. These will be stamped with a Heat Number which links it back to the conditions under which it was made; the chemical ladle analysis and properties to meet a particular specification. These then undergo visual, non-destructive and destructive testing to verify everything is acceptable.

A third party / independent verification body (or IVB) will also confirm this by basically shadowing every step of the way and confirming everything is legit; right from the internal processes and systems of the company down to the certification of testing equipment involved and witnessing the tests.

If this is the case and everything lines up you will get something like an EN 10204 3.2 cert with your plate/section.

Then to maintain tracability from plate to part, there are standard processes and requirements (either industry standard, or client imposed) which then help maintain a chain of custody as it were.

I would hazard a guess that it's similar for ceramics.

NASA has held it's cards close to it's chest when it comes to operational data about the Shuttle, particularly the refurbishment process.

Back in the cold war there was the fear that this information would be useful to another country that could learn from our experience and develop a shuttle that is faster and cheaper to turn around. Maybe things are different now.

While I sympathize with the authors desire to obtain a neat dataset, the externalized cost of obtaining it seems high and (frankly) perhaps just a little inconsiderate.

Imagine someone asked you to spend a few days (minimum) looking through storage to find the boxes with the data in some warehouse.

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He should go post on www.nasaspaceflight.com. Lots of old shuttle folks hang out there.

[offtopic] font on that page is unreadable (chrome on windows)