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.
Marveling at the Saturn V engines.
Learning about the VAB.
Craning necks to see to the top of the building.
Studying a photo of an assembled rocket.
Imagining standing against each 6 foot tall star.
Source: Wikipedia
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