The new rocket fuel tank will be unveiled next week, or months before NASA's planned May 15 launch of Discovery.

The fuel will be shipped from Louisiana to Florida on New Year's Eve, NASA officials said.

Pending final inspections and favorable weather, the 154-foot-tank should arrive via barge at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral within five to six days of leaving the Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) production facility outside New Orleans, the Chronicle said its copyright report.

Safety revisions to the fuel tank represent a major component of NASA's return-to-flight strategy since the Feb. 1, 2003, Columbia shuttle disaster.

NASA has spent nearly $200 million to reduce the kind of tank insulation foam losses that caused the fatal wing damage, the report said.