composite fuel tank

Engineers lower an 18-foot-wide composite fuel tank into a test stand at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., for a series of tests NASA is calling a "major technology breakthrough." The tanks, which are lighter than metal tanks, survived pressure testing and moved the space agency closer to lighter - and thus cheaper - tanks for future rockets. (NASA photo)

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama - In what NASA is calling one of its "major technology accomplishments of 2014," engineers here have successfully tested a large rocket fuel tank made of new composite materials at launch pressures.

The successful tests announced today put NASA one step closer to lightweight composites that could lower the weight of future rocket tanks by 30 percent and their cost by 25 percent. Lighter tanks would mean less thrust and fuel needed for liftoff.

The 18-foot-diameter tank built by Boeing was flown to the Marshall Space Flight Center earlier this year aboard NASA's Super Guppy and then placed in a special test stand. Engineers filled the tank with liquid hydrogen and applied pressure to simulate launch conditions.

"Never before has a tank of this size been proven to sustain the thermal environment of liquid hydrogen at these pressures," Dan Rivera, Boeing program manager for the cryotank project, said in a NASA statement. "Our design is also more structurally efficient then predecessors. This is a significant technology achievement for NASA, Boeing and industry."

"This is one of NASA's major technology accomplishments for 2014," Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for Space Technology, said in the statement. "This is the type of technology that can improve competitiveness for the entire U.S. launch industry, not to mention other industries that want to replace heavy metal components with lightweight composites."