Checking out the STS-117 Tank

Until this week Emma's astronaut has been on the wall in my office waiting for her tour to begin.


It took longer than I would have liked, but she finally made her first trip out to explore. Today's Destination: The ET Holding Cell.

The ET, or External Tank, is the big orange part of the shuttle that holds all of the fuel for the engines at launch. After the tank is empty it disconnects from the orbiter and burns up while falling back to the ocean. The ET is built in Louisiana and delivered to Kennedy Space Center by boat.


When the tank gets to KSC we take it off the boat and move it into the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It seems tiny sitting in the VAB, so it's easy not to realize how large it is. Even I forget until I'm standing right next to it. To compare it to the biggst thing I can think of right now, the ET is around 5 elephants long (154 feet), 2.5 elephants tall (28 feet), and 3.5 elephants in weight when it's empty (58,800 pounds).


After the tank is inside the VAB we pick it up and put it in a holding area until it's time to attach it to the rest of the shuttle. The foam is very fragile, so the tank is safer there than if we left it in the middle of the building. We can also do any work needed to get it ready for launch. Without a tank in it, the holding area looks something like this:


This cell very high up - over 250 feet if you're on top. The building is big enough that you don't really notice. Unless you look down at the floor...


Right now there is a tank in one of the holding cells that will be used for the launch in March. They are supposed to move it tomorrow morning to connect it to the rest of the shuttle and I wanted to see it before it went. We started at the top and worked our way down so we could see all of it.



At the lowest level we had our picture taken under the ET.

Photo: Bill W.

I was a little scared standing directly under it, so I'm glad it didn't fall. We definitely would have been squashed.

Thanks go to my friend Bill in the VAB for his help making this tour stop possible. Where is Emma's Astronaut going next? I haven't decided yet. It could be anywhere.