Holding an actual piece of a NASA space shuttle in your hands is quite a thrill, especially when you learn what mission it was used on.

"The black tile you’re holding is a high temperature reusable surface insulation tile used on the recent John Glenn shuttle mission," said NASA worker Terry White, who always returns with his family to Junction City during the Thanksgiving holidays.

White has worked for NASA for 21 years. He was present during the tragic Challenger disaster, and more recently was involved in getting John Glenn off the ground for his return to space on Space Shuttle Mission STS-95.

White works in the hangar where shuttles are readied for flight. "We pick it up from landing at the runway and roll it into the orbiter processing facility, composed of three large hangars, and I’m stationed at Orbiter Processing Facility One. This where we readied Space Transportation System 95, or STS-95 for short, the number of John Glenn’s return space flight," said White.

He continued, "When the shuttle is almost ready to leave the hangar, it goes to the vertical assembly building and then to the pad. The crew comes in for their CEIT, Crew Equipment Interface Test. This is where the astronauts actually go inside the shuttle, in the crew compartment, in the payload bay, etc., and they make sure everything is right for their mission.

They check hand controls, look over modifications we’ve done, and spend an entire day there checking over everything. Our technicians and engineers work with them and walk through situations with the astronauts. If they’re going to do EVAs, Extra Vehicular Activities such as space walks, then they cover all the tools they will use. This is their last time to check things in the shuttle before it goes out to the pad and they get inside just before launch.

At the end of the day when all is done, we have a customary two-hour get-together where we share beverages and snacks with the crew. We usually hold these at a hotel, but because of the enormous crowds wanting to see John Glenn, we held the function at the space center at an outdoor pavilion.

In this case I went home and got the family and brought them back. Glenn was very nice and spoke to everyone who wanted to talk with him before he took time to eat something."

White was born in Perry County, and he plans to make arrangement to have the county library exhibit the shuttle tile for awhile, before turning it over to the Perry County Historical Society.

White continued, "My dad, Robert H. White, passed away earlier this year. He was born and raised in Perry County and worked for North American Aviation in Columbus and ultimately wound up at the Kennedy Space Center, where he worked on both the Apollo and Shuttle programs.

My two brothers, Larry and David, also worked on the shuttle program, and I have two cousins, Richard and Robert Lee White from New Lexington who worked in the space program even before my dad was there.

I am giving this historic momento to Perry County in appreciation for all of the people from Perry County who have contributed in some way to our nation’s entire space program," white said proudly.

Perry County Tribune, New Lexington, Ohio
Vol. 106 No. 49
Wednesday, December 8, 1999