A Defining Image

NASA Stennis teams remove a space shuttle external fuel tank, used in all Main Propulsion Test Article firings, from the B-2 side of the Thad Cochran Test Stand on March 18, 1981. The tank was installed on the stand in 1977. The Main Propulsion Test Article involved installing a shuttle external fuel tank, a mockup of the shuttle orbiter, and the vehicle’s three-engine configuration on the stand, then firing all three engines simultaneously as during an actual launch.