Origin of the Shuttle glow

Abstract

On a recent Shuttle mission four gases, NO, CO2, Xe, and Ne were released for a plasma experiment. Unintentionally, enough gas was scattered onto the surfaces of the Shuttle tail that when NO was released a much more intense version of Shuttle glow was observed. The other gases did not affect the normal Shuttle glow. Under normal conditions the adsorbed NO that causes the glow probably come either from the ambient atmosphere or from reactions in exhaust gases from the Shuttle thrusters.