APPLETON, WI / ACCESS Newswire / November 25, 2025 / Product innovation is part of what drives Georgia-Pacific's business across all of our segments. But our Consumer Products business has an interesting innovation backstory with NASA and a manufacturing first 212 miles above Earth, resulting in an extraordinary achievement; the first-and only -sheets of paper produced in space aboard the NASA Space Shuttle Columbia in January 1986.
Three years before, Daniel Hebert, a student at Appleton West High School in Appleton, Wisconsin, designed an experiment to explore the effects of gravity on the papermaking process. He submitted his proposal to NASA as part of the Shuttle Student Involvement Project for Secondary Schools competition. After his proposal was accepted, Daniel collaborated closely with scientists from The Neenah Technical Center (NTC), operated by James River Corporation at the time. The Center is now part of the Georgia-Pacific consumer products business still based in Neenah, Wisconsin.
Daniel and the scientists designed a handheld apparatus for making paper in microgravity (the near weightlessness experienced on the Shuttle). The experiment was conducted simultaneously on January 14, 1986, aboard Columbia in space and at NTC on Earth. This groundbreaking endeavor exemplified a cross-sector partnership that combined educational ingenuity with scientific expertise, showcasing the potential of collaboration between students and industry professionals.
Over the past year, significant research and work have taken place to preserve and celebrate this historic achievement, including interviewing five individuals involved in the original project, and collecting a wealth of primary source materials such as the actual device flown aboard the shuttle, sheets of paper created as part of the experiment, early sketches, engineering drawings, and more.
To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the experiment in January 2026, artifacts will be showcased in an exhibit at Appleton's the History Museum at the Castle. Visitors will have the opportunity to view the unique device that produced the paper in space, along with other rare memorabilia from the collaboration. This exhibit celebrates improbable ideas and honors the enduring contributions of the surrounding community to the advancement of scientific discovery, both historically and continuing to the present day.
Learn more about the exhibit and the History Museum at the Castle here.
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SOURCE: Georgia-Pacific Corporation
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/industrial-and-manufacturing/a-young-mind-an-improbable-idea-and-the-first-paper-made-in-space-1112005