NASA conducts second round of fire experiments in space

Saffire’s ground team still don’t have the data needed to be able to release the experiment’s results, but they were able to download photos of all nine experiments. They released videos of two materials being burned, which you can watch below. Take note that Sample 7 is a piece of Nomex, while Sample 9 is a piece of plexiglass used to make spacecraft windows.

NASA still has one more round of space fire experiment left after this. The Saffire team plan to burn another big chunk of material like they did the first time instead of several smaller ones like what they did for this round. If you’ll recall, the team burned a 16×37-inch block of cotton-fiberglass material for Saffire-1, which is now known as the biggest fire experiment in space. The scientists aim to use the data they collect from all three experiments to help keep astronauts safe when they embark on long-duration missions.