Image of the day: The first space shuttle external tank

External Space Shuttle. Photo credit NASA

Seen in this historic photo from the U.S. space agency, the first Space Shuttle External Tank, or the Main Propulsion Test Article, entered NASA history on September 9th, 1977, when it rolled off of the assembly line in at the New Orleans Michoud Assembly Facility. It is an integral part of the history of U.S.A. spaceflight.

The External Tank was soon moved to National Space Technology Laboratories, now the Stannis Space Center in southern Mississippi. The MPTA was used in the static test firing of the Space Shuttle’s three main engines.
The ET or MPTA was developed by the Marshall Space Flight Center. The ET has two tanks, one for liquid hydrogen and the other for liquid oxygen, combined with plumbing that supplies propellant to the Space Shuttle Orbiter’s Main Engines.

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Source Space.com