Culture
A Huge NASA Fuel Tank Will Lumber Through L.A. This Weekend
The 65,000-pound Space Shuttle Program relic has come from New Orleans via the Panama Canal.
There are wide loads, and then there are wiiiiiiide looooads. The Space Shuttle fuel tank that will make its way through L.A. this weekend is the latter: 65,000-plus pounds, 154 feet long, and massive enough to punch a gaping hole in a 7-Eleven if incorrectly steered.
However, NASA is viewing the job with its usual geeky confidence. “Resting on its side, the tank is half the length of a football field,” writes Ota Lutz at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “So it presents a different set of navigational challenges—which, coincidentally, make for some great math problems.”