NASA’S External Tank For Final Shuttle Flight Gets New Orleans Send-Off

NEW ORLEANS — NASA and Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company will hold a ceremony at 9 a.m. CDT on Thursday, July 8, at the agency’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The event will commemorate 37 years of successful tank deliveries and the final external tank’s rollout for the last space shuttle flight.

NASA Television and the agency’s website will broadcast the ceremony live. Coverage begins at 8:45 a.m. NASA and Lockheed Martin senior managers will participate in the ceremony. Reporters interested in covering the event or interviewing workers and managers must contact Harry Wadsworth at 504-257-0094 by Tuesday, July 6.

Journalists should report to the Michoud Main Gate, 13800 Old Gentilly Road, by 8:30 a.m. Vehicles are subject to a security search at the gate. Photo identification and proof of car insurance is required.

The last external tank scheduled to fly on a shuttle mission was completed on June 25 by Lockheed Martin workers at Michoud. The tank, designated ET-138, will travel on a wheeled transporter one mile to the Michoud barge dock. It will be accompanied by the Storyville Stompers, a traditional area brass band, and hundreds of handkerchief-waving employees in typical New Orleans fashion and spirit.

The tank will travel on a 900-mile sea journey to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where it will support shuttle Endeavour’s STS-134 launch.

NASA TV will broadcast the events on its media and high definition channels. For streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information about the Space Shuttle Program and the STS-134 mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle

NASA will tweet during the ceremony. To follow, visit: http://www.twitter.com/NasaSmokeNfire

For information about NASA and other agency programs, visit: http://www.nasa.gov