How to transport 30-ton rocket fuel tanks across residential areas

To be able to transport 30-million rocket fuel tanks through a densely populated city like Los Angeles is not a simple thing.

Making giant parts of a rocket is not easy, but transporting these parts is much more difficult. You cannot use air transport, because there are no aircraft big enough and strong enough to transport these giants.

The only solution is shipping by road and sea.

The only solution is shipping by road and sea. Imagine moving a 30-ton rocket fuel tank over a distance of 7,000km. That seems like an impossible task, especially when traveling through densely populated cities.

The task to complete was the ET-94 rocket fuel tanker weighing 30 tons, nearly 50 meters long and 8 meters in diameter.

The 7,000km route from NASA Center in New Orleans, goes through the Panama Canal with barges and continues to the California Science Center by road. This journey will take up to 1 month.

The most difficult road segment is 26km passing through Los Angeles.

But that is not the hardest part, but the most difficult part of the road is 26km through Los Angeles. Because the streets here are not designed to transport huge things like rocket fuel tanks.

When passing through a crowded residential area in the city, the ET-94 transport vehicle can only run at 8km / h. Along with the city police escort, they will be tasked with cleaning up the obstacles along the way. Even temporarily cut off the high-end phone lines, if it interferes.

ET-94 is the only remaining fuel tank, belonging to the main fuel tank equipped for shuttle Columbia.

ET-94 is the only remaining fuel tank, belonging to the main fuel tank equipped for shuttle Columbia. The same ET-94 fuel tanks will separate from the shuttle and fall freely in the atmosphere when reaching a certain height. Most of them were destroyed before falling back to Earth.

This fuel tank will be on display at the California Science Center, along with a space shuttle and solid fuel boosters. This will be the only place in the world where people can see a spaceship with such a full structure.