Length-153 ft. 9.6 in. Diameter-27 ft. 7.2 in.
the external tank carries the fuel
The Challenger Explosion was caused by an external tank explosion. The space shuttle broke apart due to gasses mixing in the external fuel tank. The shuttle exploded and the space shuttle was torn apart.
It is called the "External Tank", or ET for short. It holds the space shuttle's liquid hydrogen fuel, and it's oxidizer, liquid oxygen.
The external tanks can contain up to 534,900 US gallons of propellant. The shuttle has two of these.
Solid rocket booster followed by external fuel tank
the external tank carries the fuel
The Challenger Explosion was caused by an external tank explosion. The space shuttle broke apart due to gasses mixing in the external fuel tank. The shuttle exploded and the space shuttle was torn apart.
It is called the "External Tank", or ET for short. It holds the space shuttle's liquid hydrogen fuel, and it's oxidizer, liquid oxygen.
The external tanks can contain up to 534,900 US gallons of propellant. The shuttle has two of these.
Solid rocket booster followed by external fuel tank
The Space Shuttle External Tank carries about 1,449,813 liters of liquid hydrogen fuel and about 541,314 liters of liquid oxygen as its oxidizer. In total, it carries about 1,991,127 liters of liquid propellant for the Space Shuttle Main Engines.
The fuel inside is super cool. The insulation slows the temps from raising too fast and the fuel evaporating
The Space Shuttle weighs 165,000 pounds empty and with the Shuttle, external tank, solid rocket boosters and all the fuel combined the total weight is 4.4 million pounds. The Shuttle can also carry a 65,000 pound payload.
The space shuttle orbiter is 122.17 ft long, has a wingspan of 78.06 ft, and stands 58.58 ft high on its landing gear. The space shuttle stack (the orbiter, solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank) is 180 ft tall.
No.
Space shuttles took of vertically, attached to an external fuel tank and two solid rocket boosters (SRBs).A space shuttle takes off by burning fuel at very high temperatures and this provides lift. The rocket needs to carry extra tanks of fuel for it to provide the combustion for a reasonable amount of time until the shuttle gets into orbit.
The space shuttle orbiter orbits the earth. The solid rocket boosters are jettisoned within the earth's atmosphere, around two minutes after launch and the External Fuel Tank is jettisoned once in space.