Vehicle Assembly Building

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Vehicle Assembly Building
(U.S. National Register of Historic Places)
The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in January of 2007. The building is currently receiving a new paint job after years of wear and hurricane damage.
The Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center in January of 2007. The building is currently receiving a new paint job after years of wear and hurricane damage.
Location: Brevard County, Florida Flag of United States United States
Nearest city: Merritt Island
Coordinates: 28°35′10.61″N, 80°39′4.61″W
Built/Founded: 1966
Added to NRHP: January 21, 2000
Reference #: 99001642

The Vehicle (originally Vertical) Assembly Building, or VAB, is a very large building located at 28.586° N 80.651° W 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[citation needed], 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 meters) tall, 716 ft (218 meters) long and 518 ft (158 meters) wide. It covers 8 acres (32,500 square meters) 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"[1]. The building implements four large air machines (four cylindrical structures west of the building) to keep moisture under control. To get around, employees occasionally travel within the building via bicycle.

Being in Florida, the building has been constructed to withstand many 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.[1]

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.

[edit] 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

[edit] References

  1. ^ Restoring Old Glory and a Massive Meatball

[edit] External links



v • d • e
Space Shuttle program
Main articles Space Shuttle · Space Shuttle program Space Shuttle insignia
Components Orbiter · SRB · External Tank · SSME · OMS
Orbiters Enterprise · Columbia · Challenger · Discovery · Atlantis · Endeavour
Launch sites Kennedy Space Center LC-39 · Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-6
Developments Shuttle-Derived Launch Vehicle · Shuttle-C · Ares I · Ares V
Testing Pathfinder · MPTA · MPTA-ET
Other articles Missions (cancelled) · Decision to build · Crews · Abort modes · Space shuttles in fiction · Crawler-transporter · Space Shuttle America (motion simulator ride)  · Shuttle Mockup Explorer
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