KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. - Just after dawn, an alligator (in the foreground) watches as a tugboat pushes the Pegasus barge away from the dock at the Turn Basin in the Launch Complex 39 area. The barge is carrying external tank 119 (ET-119) and will be towed by the solid rocket booster retrieval ship Freedom Star to NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans. Delivered to Kennedy in June, ET-119 is the third newly redesigned tank and is the only tank that contains the liquid oxygen heater. The tank is being returned to Michoud for testing and further modifications. ET-119 will be the tank used on return to flight mission STS-121.
Album External_Tank