Vehicle Assembly Building

Vehicle Assembly Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center on the morning of June 8, 2007. The morning of the STS-117 launch.
Location	Brevard County, Florida United States
Nearest city	Merritt Island
Built	1966
NRHP reference No.	99001642
Added to NRHP	January 21, 2000

The Vehicle (originally Vertical) Assembly Building, or VAB, is a very large building located at 28.586°N 80.651°W / 28.586; -80.651 in NASA's Kennedy Space Center, halfway between Jacksonville and Miami, and due east of Orlando on Merritt Island, on the Atlantic coast of Florida. It is one of the world's largest buildings (by volume) at third place, the largest one-story building in the world, and was the tallest building in Florida until 1974.

It was originally built to vertically assemble the stages of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo program. It is now used for housing external fuel tanks and flight hardware, and the location of Orbiter mating (stacking) with the solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank to make up a complete Space Transportation System, called the Space Shuttle for short. Once assembled, the Space Transportation System is moved on the Mobile Launcher Platform and Crawler-Transporter to Launch complex 39.

The VAB is 525 ft (160 m) tall, 716 ft (218 m) long and 518 ft (158 m) wide. It covers 8 acres (32 500 m²) and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet (3 664 883 m³) of space.

One indicator of the building's scale is that each of the stars on the American flag painted on the building is 6 feet (1.8 m) across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and the stripes are as wide as a standard road lane. The flag was added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations along with the star logo of the anniversary, which was later replaced by the NASA logo. The VAB's interior volume is so vast that it allegedly has its own weather system—"NASA employees report that rain clouds form below the ceiling on very humid days. The building implements four large air machines (four cylindrical structures west of the building) to keep moisture under control.

Being in Florida, the building has been constructed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms. The most extensive damage ever recorded occurred during Hurricane Frances in September 2004, when about 1,000 10 × 40 foot (3 × 12 m) aluminum panels were blown off the building, resulting in about 40,000 sq ft (3,700 m²) of new openings in the sides. This came only three weeks after Hurricane Charley caused significant but less serious damage, estimated to cost about $700,000. Damage caused by these hurricanes is still apparent going into 2006. It should be noted that some of these panels are punch-outs designed to detach from the VAB when a large pressure differential is created on the outside vs. the inside. This allows for equalization and helps protect the structural integrity of the building during rapid changes in pressure such as in tropical cyclones.

Work began in early 2007 to restore the exterior paint on the immense facility. Special attention was paid to the enormous American flag and NASA "meatball" logo. The paint job will mend visible damage from the aforementioned hurricanes and years of weathering. The building has not been repainted since 1998.

It is expected that, starting in 2008-2009, it will start the transition for the assembly and processing of both the Space Shuttle and the Shuttle Derived Ares I crew launch vehicle for the upcoming Constellation Program. After the Shuttle's retirement in 2010, the VAB will become the assembly facility for both the Ares I and the unmanned heavy lift Ares V launcher for the return to the Moon in 2018.

Additional images

• 
  The VAB during its early steel construction phase (1963), along with the Mobile Launcher Platform and tower assemblies for the Saturn V rocket.
• 
  Another shot of VAB construction.
• 
  The building in 1977. The U.S. Bicentennial Star located opposite of the flag has since been replaced with the NASA Meatball Logo.
• 
  Xenon lights illuminate the Vehicle Assembly Building where workers make repairs on September 30, 2004 after Hurricane Frances.
• 
  Space Shuttle Discovery rolling out of the VAB to the launch pad for mission STS-121.
• 
  Discovery is raised into High Bay 3 of the VAB for mating with the External Tank and boosters for STS-116
• Atlantis is starting to mate with the External tank for STS-117
  Atlantis is starting to mate with the External tank for STS-117

External links

• NASA information about the building
• Vehicle Assembly Building at Structurae
• "Frances tears panels from NASA shuttle hangar" (Cable News Network report)
• Template:Nrhp source1
• Vehicle Assembly Building, High Bay and Low Bay at Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
• 3D model of the building for use in Google Earth

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