U.S. Sells 1st Products From Space: Tiny Beads

WASHINGTON — The government today announced the sale of the first products made in space--plastic beads so small that 18,000 could fit on the head of a pin.

Nearly 1 billion of the tiny spheres produced aboard the space shuttle Challenger have been sold, at $384 per vial of 30 million beads, to eight U.S. companies, the Food and Drug Administration and the University of Utah for use as microscopic “yardsticks.”