Photo Agency - Astronomy - Space - Nature

> Shuttle Discovery - External Tank Separation

Shuttle Discovery - External Tank Separation

author: Nasa/Novapix

reference: e-sts02-93000

Image Size 300 DPI: 23 * 25 cm

This STS-29 mission onboard photo depicts the External Tank falling toward the ocean after separation from the Shuttle orbiter Discovery. The giant cylinder, higher than a 15-story building, with a length of 154-feet (47-meters) and a diameter of 27,5-feet (8.4-meters), is the largest single piece of the Space Shuttle. During launch, the ET feeds the fuel under pressure through 17-inch (43.2-centimeter) ducts which branch off into smaller lines that feed directly into the main engines. Some 64,000 gallons (242,260 liters) of fuel are consumed by the main engines each minute. Machined from aluminum alloys, the Space Shuttle's ET is the only part of the launch vehicle that currently is not reused. After its 526,000 gallons (1,991,071 liters) of propellants are consumed during the first 8.5 minutes of flight, it is jettisoned from the orbiter and breaks up in the upper atmosphere, its pieces falling into remote ocean waters.

Keywords for this photo:

1989 - ATMOSPHERE - CLOUD - DISCOVERY - EARTH - EARTH FROM SPACE - EXTERNAL TANK - LIMB - OCEAN - SPACE - SPACE SHUTTLE - STS-29 -