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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - The Pegasus barge, towed by the solid rocket booster retrieval ship Freedom Star, approaches Port Canaveral. The barge carries the redesigned external fuel tank that will launch the Space Shuttle Discovery on the next shuttle mission, STS-121. It left the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans Feb. 25, making the voyage around the Florida Peninsula in five days. Next stop for the barge is the turn basin near NASA Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building. After off-loading, the tank will be moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building and lifted into a checkout cell for further work. The tank, designated ET-119, will fly with many major safety changes, including the removal of the protuberance air load ramps. A large piece of foam from one of the ramps came off during the July 2005 launch of the last shuttle mission. The ramps were removed to help eliminate a potential source of damaging debris to the space shuttle. Launch of Discovery is scheduled for May 2006. Photo credit: NASA/Cory Huston