Like any long trip, NASA’s space shuttle fleet needs to fill up on fuel – kept in massive tanks - before setting off into space.  

But unlike the typical family sports utility vehicle, NASA space shuttles keep their tanks on the outside, hence the name External Tank. Weighing about 66,000 pounds when empty, these tanks attach to the belly of NASA’s space shuttles and feed precious liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to power the spacecraft’s main engines.

In this image, External Tank 118 is being loaded onto a transporter inside the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The tank will be delivered to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, Louisiana where it will receive a new, improved bipod fitting, a piece of hardware that connects the external tank to a space shuttle.

The new bipod fitting is equipped with four rod-shaped heaters instead of insulating foam to prevent ice buildup. A portion of insulation foam broke off the external tank bipod fitting during the 2003 launch of the Columbia shuttle, damaging one of its wing leading edges and eventually leading do its destruction during reentry on Feb, 1 2003.

 The heater enhancement is part of NASA’s return to flight effort to increase safety among its shuttle fleet.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: NASA/KSC

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