KSC-2013-2118

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Volunteers prepare an orange flight test article shuttle external fuel tank, or ET, for transport from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum located at Keystone Heights Airport in North Central Florida. Weighing in at 58,000 pounds unfueled and standing more than 15-stories tall, the ET was referred to as the 'backbone' of the space shuttle. Its job was to hold about 535,000 gallons of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. It also absorbed the thrust loads produced at launch by the orbiter and the solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. Also joining the ET at Wings of Dreams is an ET transporter, the crew transport vehicle, crew hatch access vehicle, SRB aft skirt and SRB frustum. Thousands of unique space shuttle era artifacts are being allocated to facilities across the country for their new missions to educate and inspire America's next generation of explorers. Photo credit: NASA_Dimitri Gerondidakis