Apr 28 1999
From The Space Library
NASA announced it had completed negotiations on a US$625.6 million contract with Lockheed Martin Michoud Space Systems to purchase the last set of materials required to build 60 new Space Shuttle external fuel tanks. Although it was the sixth and last in a series of purchases of fuel tanks, this was the first purchase NASA had made consisting entirely of super lightweight tanks. The tank's design was the same as that of the lightweight tank design NASA had previously used, but the new tanks were 7,500 pounds (3,400 kilograms) lighter, and used a new aluminum lithium alloy. NASA and industry partners had developed the lighter alloy, 30 percent stronger than the material used to manufacture the lightweight tank, to enable the Shuttle to deliver ISS components into the proper orbit.
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