by NASA’s last remaining space shuttle outer tank took to the sky, albeit just two hops above Los Angeles.
In what was originally planned as an overnight move but extended into a two-day process due to wind concerns and additional caution, External Tank-94 (ET-94) lifted two large cranes and lowered them in front of and then between two . solid rocket boosters so that the stack will be the only fully authentic standing space shuttle in the world. The 20-story-tall exhibit will be the centerpiece of the California Science Center’s Samuel Oschin Air and Space Museum when it opens in the next few years.
“With the coupling of ET-94 to the Solid Rocket Boosters, we succeeded in a huge undertaking and most of the space shuttle stock,” said Jeffrey Rudolph, president and chief executive officer of the California Science Center, in a statement. . “With this penultimate step, our team is extremely grateful for their commitment that brought every step of this unprecedentedly complex operation to fruition.”
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Can’t wait until the new building is finished to move the shuttle in – the vehicle is just too big – the science center is going ahead with a composite stacking process unlike what was done inside the Assembly Building A NASA vehicle in Florida, but made outside, where the components are exposed to the elements. To reduce the chance that gusts of wind could start to sway the 154-foot-long (47-meter) orange tank, the team behind the “Go for Stack” effort scheduled the lift to the past hours. night between Thursday (January 11) and Friday (January 12).
Even with that precaution, however, the winds were still a cause for concern as the planned start approached. A winter storm brought strong gusts to parts of Southern California Thursday morning and, although they gradually died down in the afternoon, crews were on alert.
Waiting until conditions were acceptable, two cranes began lifting the 65,000-pound (29,500 kilogram) tank from its horizontal position at approximately 3:00 a.m. PST (1100 GMT or 6:00 a.m. EST). Gradually, the tank rotated into the vertical, and then a single large crane lifted ET-94 high enough to clear the partial walls of the new air and space center.
The tank was then set down in front of the two 149 ft (45 m) high solid rocket boosters and the surrounding scaffolding, as it was now during the day as the winds were starting to pick up again. It was decided to take a break, give the team a chance to rest and resume the second and final part of the lift on Friday night.
Waiting again until after nightfall, a crane lifted the tank and then lowered it slowly between the few rockets. A laser projected below helped guide the tank in as workers mounted on the scaffolding prepared to “soft move” ET-94 to each booster using the same attachment points that held the hardware together for shipping.
“The ETs and SRBs have eight attachment points,” Dennis Jenkins, NASA’s veteran space shuttle engineer and the project manager for the California Science Center’s Endeavor display, lamented in an interview with collectSPACE.com. “The two attachment points on the front are the primary structure, one on each side. Then there are three strings on each side, so a total of six strings at the bottom that basically keep it straight. They don’t really take a lot of load, but they’re the ones that keep the tank aligned with the boosters.”
“The forward points are secured with nuts and bolts. All the struts are pinned. The pins are a few inches in diameter, so they’re big pins,” Jenkins said.
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Stacking of the outer tank brought to close a journey for ET-94 that began with the loss of the space shuttle Columbia in 2003. The tank was originally slated to be sent with Columbia on a science mission, but after the tragedy it was test article of. to improve the design of the outer tanks that are still in production and to assist in early studies for the core stage of NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) mega-rocket.
In 2015, two years after making a brief cameo in the movie “GI Joe: Retaliation,” doubling as a missile, ET-94 was donated to the California Science Center for use with the future Endeavor exhibit. A year later, the tank was loaded onto a barge at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans for a five-week, 5,000-mile (8,000-kilometer) journey that took it to Los Angeles via the Panama Canal.
Unloaded onto a carrier at Marina del Rey, ET-94 went on a 19-hour road trip to the California Science Center. The tank sat there, adjacent to the pavilion built to house Endeavour, where it was periodically worked on to install hardware and apply new insulation while it awaited its lift.
Up next (literally) will be Endeavour. Recently covered in Shrink cover to prevent it from getting dirty, the winged orbiter will be moved, raised and mated as ET-94 sometime in the next few weeks. Once assembled, the stack will then remain to be configured for display as the Oschin Air and Space Center building is completed around and above it.
Click through to collect space see more photos from the Outer Tank-94 elevator in place of the future space shuttle Endeavor display.
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