'ET Comes Home': LA welcomes NASA fuel tank after final journey
Science
‘ET Comes Home’: LA welcomes NASA fuel tank after final journey
A giant NASA fuel tank completed its final journey on Saturday, with crowds cheering on its parade along Los Angeles streets to a science center where it will go on display with the U.S. space shuttle Endeavour. The tank, ET-94, arrived at the center after a 16-mile trip, where a dozen U.S. astronauts, including Garrett Reisman and Sandra Magnus, made appearances along the journey. The California Science Center called the parade of the fuel tank, which stands about three stories tall when towed on its side by a truck, “ET Comes Home,” in a play on the “external tank” name and the 1982 movie “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
It’s been a very smooth ride.
Science Center spokeswoman Shell Amega
Donated by NASA, the orange tank is the only one of its kind. It was never used in a shuttle launch, which would have blown it to pieces. It was designed to carry propellants to thrust a space shuttle into orbit and then detach before disintegrating as it fell to the ocean.
