NASA's 66,000-pound external fuel tank of a space shuttle, the last surviving of its kind, will be launching its final mission in May — but rather than jetting off into space, it will be making a trip by land and ocean through the Panama Canal from New Orleans to its final resting place in Los Angeles.
Known as ET-94, the tank will then settle at the California Science Center, which is the permanent home of the retired space shuttle Endeavour. Both ET-94 and Endeavour will ultimately be on display in the Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center, which is expected to open in 2019.
ET-94 measures 27.6 feet in diameter and is 154 feet long. It is currently being held at an assembly facility in Michoud, outside of New Orleans, where NASA is developing the heavy-lift Space Launch System. In a move expected to cost $3 million, the tank "will be loaded onto a flat-deck commercial barge on April 10 or 11 and depart Michoud on April 12, weather permitting," described Dennis Jenkins, project director for Endeavour's display at the California Science Center and a former shuttle engineer.
After being loaded onto the barge at New Orleans, the tank will be pushed by a river tugboat through the Intracoastal Waterway. Upon reaching the Gulf of Mexico, a 96-foot ocean tugboat will drag the barge for seven to nine days at a speed of around 7 mph before reaching the Panama Canal. It will pass through six locks in order to pass into the Pacific Ocean, where it will voyage between 17 to 20 days to San Diego.
After clearing customs, ET-94 will be transported 16.5 miles by land on a 42-wheel transportation machine, slowly making its way through city streets at 5 mph to the Science Center. There will be rolling street blocks and the temporary removal of traffic lights to make way for the tank along the route. Its expected arrival date is May 18, the Center's press release says.
ET-94, completed in 2001, was one of three types of external tanks used in NASA's shuttle program. Holding up to 1.6 million pounds of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the aluminum tank was never used but is considered to be the 'sister' to the external tank that caused the Columbia shuttle to burn up in 2003, killing the seven astronauts on board. As a result, ET-94 has been studied extensively by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board to determine what caused the fatal miscalculation.
The tank is massive but also delicate, and can only be touched in certain spots while in transport. The engineering and logistics firm Emmert International will be operating ET-94's complex journey, which will coincide with the 35th anniversary of the first space shuttle mission, STS-1, on April 12, 1981.
