This specimen is an actual, mission-flown fragment of kapton foil from the Apollo 13 Command Module Odyssey. This material helped protect Apollo astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise during one of the most harrowing missions in the history of space exploration.Kapton "foil" is aluminized polyimide film. The polyimide film is semi-transparent, so the shiny gold appearance is really light reflecting off the aluminum on the other side. The entire surface of Odyssey was coated with many layers of this foil, with the outermost layers installed aluminized side out to provide maximum reflection of radiation.The specimen measures approximately 1mm x 1mm and is enclosed in an acrylic cube with a magnified lid for easy viewing. The acrylic cube is housed inside a padded, glass-topped riker box display case measuring 5 1/2" x 6 1/2".As pictured, an information card is included with images from Apollo 13, details about the mission, and a certificate of authenticity.
