The Shirtsleeve Invention: The Story of a Man and an Idea

Robert Martin Beasley is the inventor of the Thermal Protection System for the space shuttle., the silica tiles that are in the surface of the orbiters that keep them from burning up while facing the rigors of the earth's atmosphere. His work at Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California was in high temperature ceramics. He had an idea that pure silica could be used for a lightweight insulation instead of heavier ablative materials. The company was not interested in his idea until the start of the shuttle program at NASA. The rest is history. He passed on in 1997.