Cost and Weight are Key Factors in Manufacturing Space Hardware

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., (NASA) ? On Tuesday, March 30, NASA and their industry partners unveiled a revolutionary new manufacturing process that could lower the cost of producing a tank dome -- the end piece of a fuel tank ? as much as 25 percent by using commercial materials and state-of-the-art technologies in an innovative application.

Manufacturing a traditional tank dome requires welding eight curved, pie-shaped pieces of metal together, and a fitting on the top and bottom. This requires s [...]

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