External Tank Arrives at KSC

A 15-story external tank expected to help launch a shuttle in May arrived this morning at the turn basin near Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building.

The tank, which measures 28 feet in diameter and weighs about 60,000 pounds when empty, left NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans on Nov. 21 aboard the enclosed Pegasus barge shown above.

The Liberty Star solid rocket booster retrieval ship picked up the barge in Gulfport, Miss., and towed it the rest of the roughly 900-mile journey from New Orleans.

The barge arrived at Port Canaveral the day before Thanksgiving, and reached KSC at 11 a.m. today.

Spaceport workers will start moving the external tank from the barge to a transport vehicle at 8 a.m. Thursday, then roll it a short distance into the 52-story assembly building. The tank will be lifted into High Bay 2 starting Friday morning.

Designated ET-130 and built by Lockheed Martin, the tank would equip a rescue shuttle if Discovery's targeted Feb. 12 flight ran into trouble.

It is expected to launch in mid-May, a mission now targeted for Endeavour's next flight to the International Space Station.

However, Atlantis could take over that launch slot for its Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, if a back-up part for the observatory is certified for flight soon.

The planned October Hubble mission was postponed in late September because of a computer failure on the observatory. Atlantis was rolled back from its launch pad and disconnected from its external tank and solid rocket boosters, which will be used by Discovery.

The orange external tank pumps liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel into the shuttle's main engines during liftoff. It is jettisoned about 8.5 minutes into flight, then breaks up as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.

You can read more about external tanks here.

IMAGE NOTE: Click on the images to enlarge them. Above, the Pegasus barge carrying an external tank arrived this morning at Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building turn basin. Photo credit: Mike Brown, Florida Today. Below, workers at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility watch as ET-130 emerges from the test and checkout building on Nov. 19. Photo credit: Lockheed Martin.