During the quarter hour of its operational life, the External Tank must provide the propellants and propellant conditioning for the Orbiter Main Engines, provide the structural support for the two Solid Rocket Boosters, withstand the natural and induced environments, and effect a safe disposal. The External Tank is twice the size of the S-II Stage used in the Saturn V Booster for the Apollo and Skylab Spacecrafts. The External Tank is 182 feet long, 27 feet in diameter, and carries 1,700,000 pounds of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants. The Shuttle System configuration and the interaction of the system elements pose an intricate system sensitivity which must be analyzed to establish the performance and sizing requirements for the External Tank.
Space Shuttle External Tank.
Short Course on the Space Shuttle Program ; 1972 ; Boulder, CO
1973-01-01
Miscellaneous
No indication
English
Space Shuttle External Tank Instrumentation Evaluation
NTIS | 1979
|Space Shuttle External Tank Project status
NTRS | 1980
|Space shuttle external tank performance enhancemnets
TIBKAT | 1996
|Lightning protection design external tank (space shuttle)
Tema Archive | 1979
|Space Shuttle with Improved External Propellant Tank
NTIS | 1982
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