 We always see a statue of a man on a horse with a sword or we see a lion with his foot on a shield. But when you come into New York Harbor and you see the symbol of America, it's a lady with a torch of hope and a torch of freedom. That's why we call her Lady and we refer to her later because she's not a statue to us. The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the people of America in 1886. She represents their shared ideals of liberty, freedom and equality. Now, enshrouded by a maze of scaffolding, Miss Liberty is getting a complete refurbishment from pedestal to torch. Next 4th of July, to commemorate her 100th anniversary, Liberty will be re-dedicated. Among many rejuvenating measures designed to repair the ravages of a century and ensure Miss Liberty's long-term survival is a protected coating for her superstructure. The coating originated in NASA research on corrosion-resistant materials at the Goddard Space Flight Center. Liberty's designer, French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bertolde, once boasted that his creation would last as long as the pyramids of the Nile. To ensure a very sound inner framework for his statue, Bertolde went into partnership with Gustav Eiffel, well-known for his Eiffel Tower. Attached to the four main chylons that act as spinal cords, is boxed secondary framing comparable to a rib cage. And attached to this framing are armature bars, which in a sense act like tendons and ligaments to support Liberty's exterior copper skin. The man responsible for restoring the statue's interior maze of framework, Victor Strauss. When the paint manufacturers came out and looked at the statue, they all said, we don't know how you're going to get it clean to accept the coatings. But the American technology is still on top. And NASA had a coating that when we tried and experimented, they all exceeded all the other coatings. And it's interesting that the coating that NASA used, which I understand was used on the gantry to take off for our spaceship, is being used now to help and preserve freedom, the symbol of freedom for all Americans. Dr. John Shut of the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, explains the reason for the inorganic paints development in 1971. At that time, it was a spin-off of our work directed toward the development of coatings to protect spacecraft from the rigors of the space environment, ultraviolet light and electron and proton showers. The inorganic paint consists of a water-based silicate binder to which zinc is added. After a section of the statue's main supports is cleaned down to the bare metal, the quick-drying paint is applied layer by layer. Aside from restoring the statue's interior framework, there are many other phases of reconstruction to be considered. Liberty's interior copper skin will be clean and it seems received to improve weather resistance. The statue's overall structure is in the process of being re-portified by replacing hundreds of interior armature bars which support the copper skin. The 20-foot spikes along Liberty's crown, representing the world's seven continents and seven seas, will also be replaced. And finally, a new torch is being constructed by a team of French workmen skilled in the nearly lost art of metal shaping called Repose. The restoration effort for Miss Liberty was initiated in 1980 by a French-American committee spearheaded by Chrysler chairman Lee Iacoco. Funds come from thousands of Americans. NASA's Space Technology helping to preserve a symbol of America's heritage.