posted 06-07-2006 12:10 AM               

On June 5, Lockheed Martin and NASA personnel at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans prepared the space shuttle external tank designated ET-118 for its journey to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla.

The tank, seen in these photographs by James Bilbrey, left the port of New Orleans at 11:15 a.m. CDT Monday. Carried by NASA's transport vessel Liberty Star, ET-118 is expected to arrive June 9 at Port Canaveral, Fla.

It will be mated in coming months with Space Shuttle Atlantis for the STS-115 mission, scheduled for August 2006.