The effects of test temperature and a graphitization heat treatment on thermal and thermo-mechanical properties of a carbon-based foam material called CFOAM (R) are investigated experimentally. Thermal diffusivity is determined using a laser flash method, heat capacity via the use of differential scanning calorimetry, while (linear) thermal expansion is measured using a dilatometric technique. Experimental results are next used to compute the effective thermal conductivity and the coefficient of thermal expansion as a function of test temperature. The computed thermal conductivity results are then compared with their counterparts obtained using our recent model. The agreement between the experiment-based and the model-based results is found to be fairly good only in the case when the graphitization temperature is high relative to the maximum test temperature and, hence, CFOAM (R) does not undergo a significant additional graphitization during testing. A potential use of CFOAM (R) as an insulation material in thermal protection systems for the space vehicles is discussed. (c) 2006 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.