The tank also worked as a structural support for the entire stack and is the only piece that was not reusable.Įach time a shuttle was sent out into space on a mission, its empty external tank would detach about 70 miles above the surface of the Earth. It carried all the propellants, such as liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, that flowed into the main engines to help push the space shuttle into orbit, according to the California Science Center. Jeff Rudolph, the president and CEO of the California Science Center, told LAist this is the last flight-ready external tank left in the world.ĮT-94 worked like your car’s gas tank, but for the space shuttle orbiter that's about 30 times heavier. Visit for complete coverage of Endeavour's final mission STS-134 or follow us and on Facebook. You can follow senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter ClaraMoskowitz. We have a lot of confidence in both of those repair capabilities if we should need to use them." "Astronauts would go out with a gun-type applicator and we put some material in the cavity. "We do have some repair capability," Cain said. If, however, it does turn out that the damaged area make the vehicle unsafe to fly back to Earth, NASA has options to fix it. "I feel pretty confident that if in fact were not able to clear it by the morning, when we get the focused inspection data that we'll be able to clear this problem and not have to do anything," he said. Most likely, if such an inspection is necessary at all, it will be all that's needed to clear the last spot of any potential risk to the orbiter, Cain said. The existing pictures of that area, he said "are kind of fuzzy." "The team has not completed our assessments on this site, but the work we've done so far, we believe that we may need to do a focused inspection in order to get some fidelity," Cain said. NASA has only had to conduct focused inspections four times since adding them as an optional activity to every shuttle mission following the Columbia shuttle accident. This activity, called a focused inspection, is relatively rare. It's possible NASA will need to have the Endeavour astronauts go forward with an extra heat shield inspection to gather better photos of the area for closer analysis. This NASA image is from a May 19, 2011, briefing. This NASA image shows the primary damaged tile on the space shuttle Endeavour that engineers are studying to determine whether any additional inspections or repairs are required while the shuttle is docked at the International Space Station during the STS-134 mission. Mission managers are very close to clearing a sixth, he said.īut one area about 3.2 inches (8.1 centimeters) long and 2.5 inches (6.4 cm) wide may still pose a potential hazard, and requires further study to be sure. Of those seven spots, mission managers have already dismissed five of those since they pose no risk, Cain added. Photos of Endeavour's heat shield taken during a routine inspection by shuttle astronauts after launch, as well as by the space station's crew before the shuttle docked at the orbiting lab yesterday, revealed seven areas of damage, Cain said. The damage on Endeavour is not on the same scale as that during the Columbia accident. Several repair tools and techniques are also available, should they be needed. Since then, shuttle astronauts have conducted several in-space inspections of their spacecraft to make sure the vehicle is safe for re-entry. A piece of fuel tank debris damaged Columba's heat shield during launch, leading to the shuttle's destruction during re-entry. NASA has kept a close eye on the health of space shuttle heat shields during mission since the tragic 2003 loss of the shuttle Columbia. This NASA graphic released shows the location of damaged tiles on the belly of space shuttle Endeavour caused by debris during its May 16 launch into orbit.
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