External Tank
E175045
The External Tank was the large orange-brown fuel tank of NASA’s Space Shuttle, supplying liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the orbiter’s main engines during launch before being jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Endeavour external tank ET-94 | 1 |
| External Tank canonical | 1 |
| Space Shuttle external tank | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1523463 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: External Tank Context triple: [Space Transportation System, component, External Tank]
-
A.
LC-39B
LC-39B is a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center that has supported major crewed and uncrewed space missions, including Space Shuttle flights and later Space Launch System operations.
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B.
S-IVB
The S-IVB was the single-engine upper stage of NASA’s Saturn launch vehicles, used to place Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit and send them toward the Moon.
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C.
Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage
The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage is a liquid hydrogen–liquid oxygen upper stage used on early NASA Space Launch System missions to provide orbital insertion and translunar injection capability before the introduction of a more powerful exploration upper stage.
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D.
Space Shuttle orbiter
The Space Shuttle orbiter was NASA’s reusable winged spacecraft that carried astronauts and cargo to and from low Earth orbit as part of the Space Shuttle program.
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E.
Exploration Upper Stage
The Exploration Upper Stage is a powerful second stage designed to enhance NASA’s Space Launch System rocket’s capability to send heavier payloads and crewed missions deeper into space, including to the Moon and beyond.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: External Tank Target entity description: The External Tank was the large orange-brown fuel tank of NASA’s Space Shuttle, supplying liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the orbiter’s main engines during launch before being jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere.
-
A.
LC-39B
LC-39B is a launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center that has supported major crewed and uncrewed space missions, including Space Shuttle flights and later Space Launch System operations.
-
B.
S-IVB
The S-IVB was the single-engine upper stage of NASA’s Saturn launch vehicles, used to place Apollo spacecraft into Earth orbit and send them toward the Moon.
-
C.
Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage
The Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage is a liquid hydrogen–liquid oxygen upper stage used on early NASA Space Launch System missions to provide orbital insertion and translunar injection capability before the introduction of a more powerful exploration upper stage.
-
D.
Space Shuttle orbiter
The Space Shuttle orbiter was NASA’s reusable winged spacecraft that carried astronauts and cargo to and from low Earth orbit as part of the Space Shuttle program.
-
E.
Exploration Upper Stage
The Exploration Upper Stage is a powerful second stage designed to enhance NASA’s Space Launch System rocket’s capability to send heavier payloads and crewed missions deeper into space, including to the Moon and beyond.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Space Shuttle component
ⓘ
expendable launch vehicle stage ⓘ rocket propellant tank ⓘ |
| abbreviation | ET ⓘ |
| attachedTo |
Space Shuttle orbiter
ⓘ
two Solid Rocket Boosters ⓘ |
| color | orange-brown ⓘ |
| contains |
aft structural attachments
ⓘ
forward structural attachments ⓘ intertank section ⓘ liquid hydrogen tank ⓘ liquid oxygen tank ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| designVariant |
Lightweight Tank
ⓘ
Standard Weight Tank ⓘ Super Lightweight Tank ⓘ |
| developedBy |
Marshall Space Flight Center
ⓘ
surface form:
NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
|
| diameterApprox | 8.4 meters ⓘ |
| fateAfterSeparation | reentered atmosphere and disintegrated ⓘ |
| firstFlight | STS-1 ⓘ |
| function | supported orbiter and solid rocket boosters during ascent ⓘ |
| insulationIssue | foam shedding contributed to Columbia accident ⓘ |
| launchConfiguration |
attached to Space Shuttle orbiter belly
ⓘ
mounted between Solid Rocket Boosters ⓘ |
| launchPhase | used only during ascent ⓘ |
| lengthApprox | 47 meters ⓘ |
| manufacturedAt | Michoud Assembly Facility ⓘ |
| manufacturedBy | Lockheed Martin ⓘ |
| massClass | hundreds of metric tons when fueled ⓘ |
| material |
aluminum alloy
ⓘ
aluminum-lithium alloy ⓘ |
| notableFeature |
largest single element of Space Shuttle stack
ⓘ
only major Space Shuttle element not reused ⓘ |
| operator | NASA ⓘ |
| partOf | Space Shuttle ⓘ |
| program |
NASA Space Shuttle program
ⓘ
surface form:
Space Shuttle program
|
| programUse | flown on every Space Shuttle launch ⓘ |
| propellantType |
liquid hydrogen
ⓘ
liquid oxygen ⓘ |
| retirementReason | end of Space Shuttle program in 2011 ⓘ |
| reusability | non-reusable ⓘ |
| roleInMission | fed propellants to three Space Shuttle Main Engines ⓘ |
| separationEvent | jettisoned after main engine cutoff ⓘ |
| status | retired ⓘ |
| surfaceTreatment | spray-on foam insulation ⓘ |
| usedFor |
providing structural backbone for Space Shuttle stack
ⓘ
storing liquid hydrogen ⓘ storing liquid oxygen ⓘ supplying propellants to Space Shuttle Main Engines ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: External Tank Description of subject: The External Tank was the large orange-brown fuel tank of NASA’s Space Shuttle, supplying liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to the orbiter’s main engines during launch before being jettisoned to burn up in the atmosphere.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Endeavour external tank ET-94
this entity surface form:
Space Shuttle external tank