WIKIARCHIVES.SPACE

The Space Shuttle's first super lightweight external tank is moved on a barge toward the turn basin at Kennedy Space Center from Port Canaveral, Fla. The tank is scheduled to undergo processing at KSC's Vehicle Assembly Building for flight on STS- 91, targeted for launch in late May. The improved tank is 7,500 pounds lighter than its predecessors and was developed to increase the Shuttle payload capacity on International Space Station assembly flights. The tank was sent from the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.