Watched the Shuttle launch today. It was amazing. A few years ago, what started as a product and a blog for us ended up at NASA and the Space Shuttle program. They cheered, we cheered, and wow. Thanks to the team, the blogosphere, our happy customers, and Welch Fluorocarbon.

The shuttle crew returns for another attempt at a launch and we'll be watching. Earlier this week, we shipped more custom Clip-n-Seals to NASA and will wait to hear about their success after the flight.

While thunderstorms could threaten the shuttle's launch, liftoff is planned for tomorrow. We're awaiting specific confirmation that Clip-n-Seals are on board. We haven't heard that they aren't and the excitement is building here that they are. We'll watch it live, if it goes as planned, and report on how NASA is using our product.

While we're thrilled to have sent product to NASA, we're also aware of the emotions for the crew, engineers, family members, and all involved in the Shuttle program. Our enthusiasm is tempered by the realization that our bag closure device is just one of thousands of projects, parts, and people involved in making that bird fly.

We're confident in the program and are proud to be part of it.

Clip-n-Seals are heading to Antarctica, as part of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), to be used in a custom Teflon irradiation chamber. Clip-n-Seal, in partnership with Welch Fluorocarbon, developed a custom, extruded Clip-n-Seal for BAS. BAS chose Clip-n-Seal because it maintains an air- and watertight seal in extreme temperatures. We call the BAS custom version the Cold Mondo.

That time that I spilled a giant bag of peas across the kitchen floor and decided that we needed a Clip-n-Seal for the freezer, I had no idea that 3 years later, Clip-n-Seals would be sailing to the Antarctic. The zipper-style closures used in large freezer bags, like those from Costco, often fail. Many of our customers use Clip-n-Seals in the freezer to seal their food. The custom Cold Mondo was extruded with a tighter clamp to ensure a seal at temperatures that dip below -20 °C. It's similar to the custom version we created for Tatura Diary in Australia.

BAS is a component of the Natural Environment Research Council. Based in Cambridge UK, it has, for almost 60 years, undertaken the majority of Britain's scientific research on and around the Antarctic continent. It now shares that continent with scientists from around thirty countries.