Fascinated by space travel I am always browsing eBay looking for interesting artifacts, unfortunately most of them are out of my price range. A few years ago I found a listing eBay, an award presented to members of NASA after the successful completion of the flight of STS-1. The award contained a piece of the original heat shield from Columbia‘s first flight, cast in resin. The piece was a gift to my father and is currently on display at his house.

While on the search for more space artifacts a few years later, I came across a listing for piece of tile which claims to have been a piece of the same Columbia thermal tiling, however it’s flight status is unknown. This piece currently sits in my display case.