Fire-safety experts at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida have replaced the fire-suppression systems in its giant twin crawler transporters with Stat-X. Stat-X is designed and manufactured by Fireaway, a Minnesota-based company that specializes in suppressing fires with condensed aerosol technology, which kills fires quickly without harming the environment, said James Lavin, the company's chief executive officer.

NASA's twin crawler transporters carry the space shuttles to the launch pads for liftoff. They are 131 feet long and 113 feet wide, with a flat upper deck that measures 90 feet square — about the size of a baseball diamond — that serves as the carrying surface. Each weighs more than a ton.

"NASA's crawler transporters are like a moving building," Lavin said. "They are complex environments with a great deal of equipment packed into tight spaces, which makes the piping for gaseous fire suppression systems very cumbersome and expensive."

So the company sold the NASA Stat-X aerosol generators or self-contained extinguishing units to fight onboard fires. Lavin said the generators act as their own storage, production and delivery devices, with a solid charge of aerosol-forming material contained inside stainless-steel canisters. Upon activation, a controlled burn begins inside the canister, producing an ultra-fine aerosol that exits through discharge ports. Chemical interaction with the flame's free radicals provides rapid fire suppression, he said.

NASA has ordered Stat-X generators for three areas in both its crawlers. Over the next month, approximately 100 fire-suppression units will be installed in the control areas, machine rooms and communications rooms of the crawlers. Installations in the NASA crawlers will tie to two different types of smoke detection systems: aspirating systems and triple IR infrared sensing flame systems.

"Stat-X is compatible with all of the standard smoke detection systems," he said.

Lavin said Stat-X is environmentally friendly, having no global-warming or ozone-depletion potential. It is safe for both personnel and equipment.