Soon after the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up on descent from orbit in February 2003, material scientists and engineers at a GE plant in Newark, Delaware, started building a set of repair kits long thought impossible.

Columbia suffered a crack in its left wing when it was hit by a briefcase-size insulating foam fragment that fell from a fuel tank during take-off. During her return, superheated air entered the spacecraft through the wound and ripped the shuttle apart 15 minutes before touchdown.