High-temperature ceramics takes flight

A recent NASA flight test ending at the Kwajalein missile range in the Pacific might lead to a new aerospace design that would make the space shuttle look downright old-fashioned.

At the end of September, NASA sent four 5-inch, triangular forms made of so-called ultrahigh-temperature ceramics into space for a 23-minute flight. Scientists have proposed that such materials could help improve a spacecraft’s leading edges, where heat and other degradative processes are most pronounced.