Pressure time records of ethane air centrally ignited explosions in a spherical closed vessel have been used to study the flame propagation in mixtures with various initial concentrations, pressures and temperatures ([C2H6] = 3.40-7.60 vol %, P-0 = 30-130 kPa, T-0 = 298-433 K). The normal burning velocities have been calculated from pressure-time records for an extended duration of spherical propagation by means of an improved equation for the burnt mass fraction, recently discussed. For the stoichiometric ethane-air mixture, S-u,S-st = (43.5 +/- 1.0) cm/s was obtained, within the range of reported literature data from the spherical bomb technique. The normal burning velocities were examined in correlation with the temperature and pressure reached during flame propagation, in single experiments. A power law has been used to describe the dependency of burning velocities on pressure and temperature. The thermal exponents of burning velocities range between 1.40 and 2.20, revealing the influence of the initial pressure of the flammable mixture. The baric coefficient exponents of burning velocities range within -0.48 and -0.32 (at T-0 = 298 K) and within -0.52 and -0.29 (at T-0 = 425 K) with minimum values at the most reactive composition. The experimental normal burning velocities of ethane-air mixtures are compared with the normal burning velocities of laminar premixed flames measured by other experimental techniques and with normal burning velocities computed by numerical simulations performed with a detailed mechanism (GRI-Mech version 3.0) by means of COSILAB package, under the assumption of adiabatic propagation. The computed normal burning velocities depend on initial pressure and temperature in a similar way to the experimental burning velocities but underestimate them in the range of stoichiometric and ethane-rich mixtures.