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But it fed fuel to the 3 main engines on the orbiter, which were reused. The price of the tank should have been much lower than the engines.



Engines had to be totally rebuilt after each flight. SRBs cost around $70M each IIRC. The tank was extremely expensive because it had to be as light as possible, while keeping Hydrogen super chilled without leaking. They came out with lighter tanks later in program made out of more exotic materials.




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