— A new, limited edition collectible is both a flown artifact from a historic NASA space program and a souvenir of a one-of-a-kind museum exhibit.

MotorArt PlaneTags is set to begin sales of its new Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster tags on Thursday (July 9). The release is for two sets of numbered metal tags: the Aft Skirt Skin, limited to 2,000 pieces; and the 4,000-piece Aft Skirt Hold-Down Post.

The prices for the two versions will be announced when the sale goes live on the PlaneTags' website at 3 p.m. EDT (1900 GMT).

Styled after the classic oval luggage ID tags, PlaneTags have been made from many history-making aircraft, including several planes and other vehicles that had been in service to NASA. This is the first time that the company has offered tags cut from a rocket component that flew most of the way to space.

Each of the PlaneTags in both the Aft Skirt and Hold Down Post editions helped launch 11 space shuttle missions between 1985 and 1999, flying alongside one of the five orbiters — Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour — at least once during those 20 years. Those flights include STS-5, 41-B, 51-F, 36, 43, 54, 68, 77, 85, 103 and 110.

The missions include the first operational flight of the shuttle program (STS-5); the first flight to conduct an untethered spacewalk (41-B); the third of five flights to service the Hubble Space Telescope (103) and the installation of the first segment of backbone truss for the International Space Station (110).

Three out of the 11 missions (41-B, 51-F and 54) lifted off of Mobile Launch Platform-2 (MLP-2), from which PlaneTags continues to offer tags after NASA disposed of the large metal structure in 2021.

Solid source

For the orbiter to launch and reach orbit, it needed the thrust from its three main engines fueled by the propellant in its orange-brown foam-covered external tank and, for the first two minutes of flight, its two side-mounted solid rocket boosters (SRB). The twin rockets were each comprised of four solid fuel-filled segments provided by Thiokol (today Northrop Grumman) and a forward skirt, frustum (nose cone) and aft skirt built by McDonnell Douglas.

In addition to shielding the motor's nozzle, the 7.5-foot-tall by 18-foot-wide (2.3 by 5.5 meter) aft skirt also served as the attach point for the full stack to the mobile launch platform. The four hold-down posts with their frangible nuts and bolts were structurally reinforced to securely hold the vehicle on the ground through the six second start-up of the main engines, up until the moment of liftoff.

The aft skirt used by PlaneTags was part number 10168-0001 and serial number 13. It was the first aft skirt acquired by the California Science Center for its vertical exhibit of the space shuttle Endeavour, but was discovered after its arrival to be missing interior hardware. As such, two more skirts were sourced for the stack and no. 13 was set aside for a display of its own.

"The Solid Rocket Booster Walk-Through Experience located in the Kent Kresa Space Gallery of the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center will allow guests to walk through a portion of a genuine space shuttle-era solid rocket booster," the California Science Center describes on its website, promoting its new museum opening Nov. 13.

"This immersive exhibit experience includes parts of the lower segment of the solid rocket motor, aft dome, and aft skirt mounted horizontally to provide a 30-foot-long cylinder, 12 feet in diameter, that guests can walk through to learn about the solid rocket booster's assembly, position in the space shuttle stack, performance during flight and its recovery and reuse," the description reads.

Slicing and saving history

The MotorArt team was already familiar to the California Science Center's staff, having helped prepare the forward section of a Boeing 747 jetliner for its display in the Oschin Air and Space Center's Korean Air Aviation Gallery.

Other contractors had turned down the job to prepare the SRB aft skirt for its walk-through exhibit. Between its artifact status and varying thickness, there was a fear of damaging the hardware beyond repair.

"When we first looked at the aft skirt, we knew it wasn't going to be easy. Once we realized parts of the hold down post were much thicker than expected, it became clear this would take time. We just focused on making every cut as accurately as possible," Kevin White, MotorArt's project manager for the aft skirt exhibit, said in a statement.

The company and science center entered into an agreement that reflected the uncertainty of the outcome. If MotorArt determined it couldn't be done without risking damage to the aft skit, they would be able to walk away. If the work was successful, the preserved, excised material would become future PlaneTags.

"Being trusted by the California Science Center to help prepare such an important artifact was an honor for our entire team. We're proud that visitors will experience the aft skirt in the museum, and that collectors can preserve a small part of its story through PlaneTags," said Dave Hall, founder of MotoArt and PlaneTags.

The resulting Solid Rocket Booster Aft Skirt collectors edition is crafted from the aft skirt itself and preserves the material at its original thickness. Each of the 2,000 tags includes a collector box, brushed metal display card and story insert.

The Hold-Down Post edition is crafted from the section of the aft skirt where the solid rocket booster attached to the mobile launch platform. Each of the 4,000 tags is precision water jet cut into the PlaneTags profile.