NASA Trip–Vehicle Assembly Building

Even though we were told the Vehicle Assembly Building covers 8 acres, the enormity of the building didn’t hit home until we walked inside. Then, it was like looking up inside a skyscraper!

Top Ten Fun Facts About NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building

The VAB is part of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and was designed so that the Saturn V and Space Shuttle could be assembled and stacked vertically onto the Mobile Launch Platform.
Construction for the Vehicle Assembly Building was completed in 1966.
At 525 feet tall, the VAB is the largest single story building in the world.
The American flag painted on the VAB as part of the 1976 United States Bicentennial celebrations was the largest in the world at that time.
On the American flag, each star is 6 feet tall, each stripe is 9 feet wide, and the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court.
4,225 pilings were driven down 164 feet to bedrock with a foundation consisting of 30,000 cubic yards of concrete.
Inside the building, there are four high bays where rockets can be assembled.
The doors to the VAB are the largest in the world at 456 feet (139.0 m) high, and take 45 minutes to completely open or close.
The VAB has its own weather! Since the building’s interior volume is so vast, humid air rises, moisture condenses and forms on surfaces, and the condensations falls down, like rain.
The building has been used as a backdrop in several Hollywood movies including Marooned, SpaceCamp, Apollo 13, Contact to name a few.