Preparing Endeavour: Aft skirts and fuel tank

The team at the California Science Center is busy preparing various components of the shuttle stack for installation in the new Samuel Oschin Air and Space Center later this summer. Sections of the two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) that provided most of Endeavour‘s thrust at launch are receiving fresh coats of white paint. Meanwhile, workers are sprucing up the orange foam exterior of the massive external tank built to carry hydrogen and oxygen to power the space shuttle’s main engines. It’s getting real!

Images courtesy of the California Science Center.