History in pictures

HISTORY COLOUR

Incredible photos with equally amazing stories

The dazzling interior of a space shuttle’s external tank could almost look like a glowing star were it not for the two NASA technicians inspecting it. A masterpiece of engineering from 33 years ago, this fuel tank would carry over 1,800,000 litres of propellant needed to get the shuttle off the ground before being jettisoned once the astronauts were approximately 113 kilometres (70 miles) above the Earth.

1985