Space Shuttle External Fuel Tank — Attraction in Green Cove Springs

Never flew, never launched and never used for anything other than testing. It IS an external fuel tank and then again, it's NOT. Actually it's a Structural Test Article or STA. A mock-up of the actual Shuttle External Tank that was used for loading and stress analysis testing. Still a piece of history that was manufactured in 1977 and after it served it's testing purposes, it was shipped to the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama for display. In 1987, it was shipped to the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and was displayed there for 10 years. Finally, the STA was shipped back to the Kennedy Space Center for display until shipping out to the Wings of Dreams Aviation Museum at the Keystone Heights Airport in Starke, Fl. The final leg of the voyage to the museum was to be over land and has proven to be a logistical nightmare and very cost prohibitive. I wouldn't be surprised if it never made it to the museum. Another interesting bit of information... the facility the tank is on used to be a US Naval base and after WWII the docks housed over 800 mothballed ships, mostly Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts. Across the street used to be NAS Green Cove Springs (originally named NAS Lee Field). No longer military, it's now referred to as Reynolds Airpark.

Update: The STA has been moved about 75 yards back on Reynolds Blvd, away from the water. The owner of the building next to the tank didn't like the attention that the tank was getting and the people walking over their property to get pictures and will be putting up a fence. Still visible from the road but if not as visible from the Shand's bridge as it was before.

Update 2: Good to see that the STA has it's own Google map location. It's a piece of history that you can walk up to and touch, can't do that at most museums. Unfortunately the paint is suffering and has faded since I first saw it several years ago.

Update 3: Disregard any comment about visiting might be considered trespassing. This tank is on public property and no one has the right to turn you away or report you for being there. Of course it's probably not a good idea to visit in the dark. Use...

David Doyle’s description of this is very good. I’ll furnish the missing information. NASA was getting rid of a lot of their Shuttle stuff and among many other things, this tank was one of them. Bob Oehl was in the right place and right time and took this and other things off their hands and shipped to his Wings of Dreams museum in nearby Starke, 55 miles west of here. There are a lot of other things there including the shuttle flight deck simulator and the crew transport vehicle. Definitely worth a visit and Woody, the custodian, will show you around. Call ahead to let him know you’re going. Anyway, Woody tells me that the tank got as far as here and the museum and the local council or department of transport were debating over the route to get this tank to Wings of Dreams. The Council wanted it to go a route double the distance. There was also the issues to organising a company to remove and reinstall the power lines, the transport company and police escort. All 4 had to fall in place at the same time for it to be moved. It has so far been a 3-4 year problem. So it’s a logistical problem than a financial one. But while it’s here, enjoy the rare opportunity to touch it, hear the echo of its emptiness and. see where the two helmsmen would sit. It was shifted 85 yards from where it was because the neighbouring business wanted to put up a fence. Also, be careful, there may be wasp nests...

Not much to add that hasn't already been covered by the previous reviews except that it is free and worth a look see. Just around the corner on the old Navy piers is the derelict ship R/V Arctic Discoverer. It was the ship that was used to salvage the SS Central America back in the late 80's. The SS Central America was a old gold rush ship that sunk in a storm with millions of dollars of gold on board. The whole story is in the book "Ship of Gold" I entered the Holland Marina from the north end of the...