New Fuel Tank for Shuttle Is on Its Way to Launch Pad

A 27-ton fuel tank is making a five-day voyage across the Gulf of Mexico to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as the agency prepares for its first shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster in 2003.

Workers at NASA’s New Orleans facility gave the massive tank a final inspection Thursday, readying it for the trip down the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and into the gulf. Escorted by a Coast Guard patrol boat, the tank is to travel in a barge around the Florida Keys and arrive next week at the space center at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The tank “feels like our baby. We have pampered it, and everyone takes great pride in it,” said Sandy Coleman, NASA’s external-tank project manager.

The design of the shuttle’s 154-foot external tank was altered after an investigation blamed the Columbia disaster on a chunk of foam that peeled off the tank during liftoff and gashed a wing. The shuttle broke apart over Texas on its return to Earth, killing all seven astronauts.

The redesign of the tank includes new ways of applying the foam, and the addition of heaters at key points to prevent the formation of ice from the cold liquid hydrogen and oxygen inside. Also, cameras that can monitor the outside of the tank during launch are being added.

In one final inspection, workers with the space agency and contractor Lockheed Martin examined “every inch” of the tank for imperfections in the foam, Coleman said. “We have eyes, triple eyes, on every part of the tank,” Coleman said.

NASA plans to use the tank for a May or June launch of space shuttle Discovery.