Boeing engineer Elizabeth Chu inspects the a heat shield
demonstration unit developed for NASA's Orion crew
capsule, the future spacecraft that will carry
astronauts to the International Space Station and
eventually to the moon. Boeing was awarded a contract
last year to develop a prototype heat shield to protect
NASA astronauts from extreme heat during re-entry into
the Earth's atmosphere upon returning from lunar and
low-Earth orbit missions. The work was performed at
Boeing facilities in Huntington Beach, Calif.
