Space Shuttle Projects

This is a cutaway illustration of the Space Shuttle external tank (ET) with callouts. The giant cylinder, higher than a 15-story building, with a length of 154-feet (47-meters) and a diameter of 27.5-feet (8.4-meters), is the largest single piece of the Space Shuttle. During launch, the ET also acts as a backbone for the orbiter and solid rocket boosters. Separate pressurized tank sections within the external tank hold the liquid hydrogen fuel and liquid oxygen oxidizer for the Shuttle's three main engines. During launch, the ET feeds the fuel under pressure through 17-inch (43.2-centimeter) ducts that branch off into smaller lines that feed directly into the main engines. The main engines consume 64,000 gallons (242,260 liters) of fuel each minute. Machined from aluminum alloys, the Space Shuttle's external tank is currently the only part of the launch vehicle that is not reused. After its 526,000-gallons (1,991,071 liters) of propellants are consumed during the first 8.5-minutes of flight, it is jettisoned from the orbiter and breaks up in the upper atmosphere, its pieces falling into remote ocean waters. The Marshall Space Flight Center was responsible for developing the ET.