It was also considered for use with NASA's new heavy-lift rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS), slated to fly in 2018. Instead, ET-94 became a test article, used to validate the modifications made to the external tanks that enabled the shuttle fleet to safely return to flight after Columbia.

'Since all of the missions after the accident were to the International Space Station – with the exception of the one high-altitude mission to service the Hubble – there was never an opportunity to use the tank,' explained Dennis Jenkins, project director for Endeavour's display at the California Science Center. ET-94 would have likely flown on a science-dedicated mission were it not for the loss of orbiter Columbia in 2003. ĮT-94, a so-called 'lightweight tank,' was built at a time when NASA was transitioning to using even lighter 'super lightweight tanks' to be able to launch the heavier parts needed to assemble the International Space Station. 94 (ET-94), never flew and so it still exists today. Over the course of the 135-mission, 30-year program, 136 flight-qualified external tanks were constructed at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in Louisiana. When Endeavour reached orbit on its final flight on May 16, 2011, its spent tank was jettisoned to be destroyed when it fell back into the Earth's atmosphere, just like every other external tank that launched before and after it. The tank was the shuttle's only major component that was not recovered and reused after launch. The external tank served as the structural backbone of the space shuttle and fed liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to the three main engines mounted to the aft of the orbiter. atop a modified 747 jetliner, the iconic spacecraft embarked on a three day, 12-mile (19-km) road trip to the center's Oschin pavilion, where it has been on exhibit since October 2012. After being made safe for display and flown to L.A. NASA awarded Endeavour to the science center in April 2011, a month before it lifted off on its 25th and final flight. The California Science Center had planned to construct a replica of the tank until NASA agreed to donate the historic hardware for the unprecedented exhibit. The orange-brown tank, which will be transported by barge from New Orleans to California via the Panama Canal and then moved overland through the streets of Los Angeles, will be stacked with NASA's retired orbiter Endeavour and a pair of boosters that were obtained earlier.

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