Lockheed Martin Corp. today declared the end of shuttle external tank production at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. Lockheed's external tank, or ET, contract began Sept. 5, 1973. The last flight-ready tank, numbered ET-122, arrived at Kennedy Space Center this week and was offloaded into the Vehicle Assembly Building on Tuesday.
In total, Lockheed built 136 tanks for what is expected to be 135 shuttle missions before the shuttle program retires. Each tank measures 154 feet tall and 27 feet around and holds 535,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel.
One tank remains at Michoud that is an older model -- called Lightweight, rather than Super Lightweight -- that has been used as a test article. A spokesman said it would take about a year to refurbish that tank, called ET-94, for flight desired.
Components of other tanks would take more like two years to build, a process that would require reconstituting the workforce.
About 600 Lockheed employees remain at Michoud, down from 1,438 on Jan. 1. Most are working on the Orion spacecraft or will remain involved in operations related to the final three shuttle missions. Read the company's release here.
IMAGE: ET-1 rollout on June 29, 1979. The first two external tanks were painted white. Credit: Lockheed Martin.
4 comments:
Don't worry about Lockheed they made money hand over fist when Bush broke the penny bank looking for WMD in Iraq.
"In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more the very kind of threat Iraq poses now -- a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction ready to use them or provide them to terrorists, drug traffickers or organized criminals who travel the world among us unnoticed.
If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program."
President Clinton
Address to Joint Chiefs of Staff and Pentagon staff
February 17, 1998
"As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." -- Nancy Pelosi, December 16, 1998
right on bkhuna...losers from the left just love to run from the facts. How about the cover of Time magazine showing the Kurds killed by Iraq-deployed yellow rain weapons ? If there are no WMD, why did we have inspectors and why were they kicked out in clear violation of the UN treaty following the Kuwait invasion ? Why did Slick Willy launch cruise missiles into downtown Baghdad ? Why were those rats in Iraq firing at our aircraft as they patrolled the green zone following the war ? As for that anonymous guy (aka Antagonist), he needs to stop drinking cough syrup and head back to the shelter now.
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so, any new shuttle-derived HLV is already DEAD in the cradle ...
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