Human Space Flight
External Tank
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External Tank
The external tank contains the liquid hydrogen and oxygen and supplies them under pressure to the three space shuttle main engines during lift-off and ascent. When the main engines are shut down, the external tank is jettisoned, enters the Earth's atmosphere, breaks up, and impacts in a remote ocean area. Unlike the solid rocket boosters, the external tank is not recovered. The external tank is a large red tube structure and is the largest and heaviest element of the space shuttle. It has three major components:  the forward liquid oxygen tank, an unpressurized intertank containing most of the electrical components, and the aft liquid hydrogen tank. The external tank is about half a football field in length and measures 27.6 feet across its diameter. Although future tanks may vary slightly, each will weigh approximately 66,000 pounds. (That's about the same weight as 33 cars.) Engineers are always trying to design lighter structures, because a lighter weight external tank means that more weight can be carried in the payload bay of the orbiter. For each pound saved in the external tank, the load carrying capacity of the payload bay is increased almost one pound.


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Ted Wolff - tawolff@sandia.gov