Technicians at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, moved the largest piece of structural test hardware for America’s new deep space rocket, the Space Launch System, from the factory to the dock where it was loaded onto NASA’s barge Pegasus Dec. 14, 2018. The liquid hydrogen tank test article will make its way up the river to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where dozens of hydraulic cylinders in Test Stand 4693 will push and pull on the giant tank, subjecting it to the same stresses and loads it will endure during liftoff and flight. The test hardware is structurally identical to the flight version of the liquid hydrogen tank that will comprise two-thirds of the core stage and hold 537,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen cooled to minus 423 degrees Fahrenheit.
Image Credit: NASA/Steven Seipel