Fuel tank to boost Calif. shuttle exhibit

LOS ANGELES - The California Science Center is the only museum in the nation that planned to make its space shuttle exhibit with as many authentic parts as possible, set up as if it's ready to launch.

There was a problem. The enormous orange external fuel tank, which attaches to the shuttle's belly, is burned up in the atmosphere shortly after every liftoff. Museum officials figured they'd have to settle for a replica.

But in a coup for the Science Center, NASA has agreed to give the last remaining external fuel tank to the state-run museum's Endeavour exhibit, officials announced last week. The move is set for late this year.

The fuel tank is huge. At 153.8 feet in length, it is taller than a 15-story building, and longer than Endeavour's 122 feet. But it is skinnier, with a diameter of 26.7 feet, because it has no wings, which will make it generally easier for it to navigate the streets of Los Angeles than the shuttle once did.

At about 66,000 pounds, it is less than half the weight of Endeavour.

The fuel tank will come to California the same way it was shipped to Florida's Kennedy Space Center - by barge. It will start a 45-day journey at sea from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the fuel tanks were built by Lockheed Martin, and then pass through the Panama Canal, and end up in Marina del Rey, near Los Angeles.

Then, it will begin a daylong journey through the streets of Southern California to get to the Science Center near downtown Los Angeles.

"We are very excited," said Jeffrey N. Rudolph, president of the Science Center. "A lot of people at NASA see the value in having one place in the world where there could be the full space shuttle showing the full system in one place."

At a time when there are a lot of fake, Hollywood-style replicas, nothing beats the real thing, Rudolph said. "It's the reason why so many people have been coming to see the shuttle. There's a value in authenticity," he said. "In today's world, you can see anything virtually. Seeing the real thing is not so common anymore."

The journey could be similar to the spectacle Los Angeles encountered in 2012, when thousands gathered along the city's wide boulevards to cheer Endeavour's arrival.

It will still be a slow trip, but the fuel tank's relatively svelte shape will make things easier. Officials don't believe they'll have to take down power lines, as had to be done to accommodate Endeavour's tall tail.

The external tank is one of three main sources of fuel for Endeavour as it lifts off into the sky. The two others are the twin solid rocket boosters, which help lift the shuttle in the first two minutes of flight. Because they were reusable, they were easy to obtain, said Dennis R. Jenkins, the project director overseeing the museum's Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center and a former contract engineer who worked on the shuttle program.

But there was only one external fuel tank remaining, called ET 94, built at a cost of $75 million. It was considered a lightweight tank, intended to pull the shuttle into low-earth orbit. This version was cheaper to build than the super lightweight tanks, which were able to lift the shuttle farther up to get to the International Space Station.