Discovery handed special heatshield coating DTO on behalf of Orion

Shuttle Discovery has been tasked with a special DTO (Detailed Test Objective) - on behalf of the Orion Project Office - to be carried out during STS-128’s re-entry. A “Catalytic Coating” has been applied to two of Discovery’s Thermal Protection System (TPS) tiles, providing Orion - and shuttle - engineers with refined aeroheating data. STS-128 Processing Latest: Discovery is