Most of the foam is applied at the Lockheed Martin's After extensive testing the External Tank Project
Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans when the proposed as the CFC 11 replacement hydro
tank is manufactured. However, the "closeout" chlorofluorocarbon HCFC 141b, a blowing agent
areas, or final areas applied, are done either by hand friendlier to the environment, as the CFC 11
or spraying at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape replacement. At the same time, the Environmental
Canaveral, Fla. Protection Agency allowed the External Tank
program to continue use of stockpiled supplies of
There are four specially engineered closed-cell CFC 11until HCFC 141b was certified for use on the
foams used on the tank. The larger sections of the Space Shuttle and phased in.
tank are covered in NCFI 24-124, NCFI is an
acronym for North Carolina Foam Industries; NCFI However, in 1999, the EPA proposed to expand its
24 accounts for 77 percent of the total foam used on regulations by implementing a ban on nonessential
the tank. products that release class I ozone-depleting
substances under section 610 of the Clean Air Act.
NCFI 24-57, which has a different formulation than Under the proposed rule, sale and distribution of BX
NCFI 24-124, is used on the aft dome, or bottom, of 250, used to insulate part of the External Tank,
the liquid hydrogen tank. PDL 1034, a hand-poured would have been banned because it contains CFC
foam used for filling odd-shaped cavities, and BX 11. NASA asked the EPA to revise the proposed
250/265 foam is used on the tank's "closeout" areas. rule to provide an exemption for BX 250 and other
During the early days of the External Tank's foam containing CFC 11 used in applications
development, PDL was an acronym for Product associated with space vehicles.
Development Laboratory, the first supplier of the
foam. The EPA allowed the exemption but limited it to the
Thermal Protection System of the Shuttle's External
NCFI 24-124, NCFI 24-57 and BX 250/265 are all Tank and only allowed the use of CFC 11 as a
mechanically sprayed foams, though BX 250/265 is blowing agent when no other chlorofluorocarbons
manually-applied, or hand-sprayed in some areas. are used in the foam product.
Environmental Protection Agency The "new" foam containing HCFC 141b was first
used on the liquid hydrogen tank aft dome of ET-82
In 1987, the United States and 45 other nations and flew on STS-79 in 1996. The foam was
adopted the "Montreal Protocol on Substances that implemented on the tank's acreage, or its larger
Deplete the Ozone Layer." Under the Protocol, class portions, beginning with ET-88, which flew on STS-
I ozone depleting compounds, such as 86 in 1997. In December 2001, BX-265, which
Chlorofluorocarbon 11 known as CFC 11 -- the contains HCFC 141b, first flew as a replacement of
Freon-based blowing agent used in the production of BX-250. However BX250 continued to be flown as
the External Tank's foam -- was to be phased out of BX-265 was implemented step wise through the
production by the end of 1995. Production of these manufacturing process.
compounds after 1995 is allowed only by "Essential