[Jael]

Ah, so it would shatter and spray like it did.
That makes sense.

A gentleman posting here who worked at NASA says the tiles are so fragile that a quarter dropped on one from two feet would ruin it.

[OldFriend]

A friend has some rejected tiles. They have fingernail digs in them. REJECTED for those little digs. She tells me too that they are feather lite, they can withstand 3,000 degrees heat on the outside and can be held in your hand on the flip side. It's amazing!

Wish everyone would give more credit to the engineering feat that getting one of these birds up in the air entails. And realize too, the myriad of things that can go wrong.