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Vehicle Assembly Building
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Vehicle Assembly Building | |
|---|---|
| (U.S. National Register of Historic Places) | |
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| Location: | Brevard County, Florida  United States |
| Nearest city: | Merritt Island |
| Coordinates: | |
| Built/Founded: | 1966 |
| Added to NRHP: | January 21, 2000 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 99001642 |
| Governing body: | United States of America |
The Vehicle (originally Vertical) Assembly Building, or VAB, is a very large building located at 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) in third place.[1] The VAB is the largest one story building in the world,[2][3] and was the tallest building in Florida until 1974.
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The VAB was originally built to allow for the vertical assembly of the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo program. It is now used for housing external fuel tanks and flight hardware, and is the location of space shuttle orbiter mating (stacking) with the solid rocket boosters and external fuel tank, that combined makes up the 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 feet (160.02 m) tall, 716 feet (218.24 m) long and 518 feet (157.89 m) wide. It covers 8 acres (32,374.85 m²), and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet (3,664,992.82 cubic metres) of space.[1]
One indicator of the building's scale is that each of the stars on the American flag painted on the building is 6 feet (1.83 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 is 209 feet (63.70 m) high, and 110 feet (33.53 m) wide, and was added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations, along with the star logo of the anniversary, later replaced by the NASA logo. The interior volume of the building is so vast, NASA employees have reported it has its own weather, "NASA employees report that rain clouds form below the ceiling on very humid days."[4]
The building implements four large air machines (four cylindrical structures west of the building) to keep moisture under control.
Being in Florida, the building was constructed to withstand hurricanes and tropical storms. The most extensive damage occurred during the storm season of 2004, when Hurricane Frances blew off 850 10 × 40 foot (3 × 12 m) aluminum panels from the building, resulting in about 40,000 square feet (3,716.12 m²) of new openings in the sides.[5][6] Twenty five additional panels were blown off the east side by the winds from Hurricane Jeanne just three weeks later. Earlier in the season, Hurricane Charley caused significant but less serious damage, estimated to cost $700,000. Damage caused by these hurricanes is still visible in 2007. 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 work will mend visible damage from years of storms and weathering. The building has not been repainted since 1998.[6]
There are four entries to the "bays" located inside the building. Each door is 456 feet (138.99 m) high, and the north entry that leads to the transfer aisle was widened to 595 feet (181.36 m), to allow entry of the orbiter. A central slot at the center of the north entry allows for passage of the orbiter's vertical stabilizer.
To lift the components of the Space Transportation System, the VAB houses 71 cranes, and two bridge cranes.
It is expected that, starting in 2008-2009, the Vehicle Assembly Building will begin a 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.
- ^ a b NASA (1999). Vehicle Assembly Building (English). NASA. Retrieved on September 23, 2007.
- ^ Associated Content, Inc. (2007). Microsoft, NASA Unveil 3D Look at Shuttle and Launch Pad (English). Associated Content, Inc.. Retrieved on September 23, 2007.
- ^ PR Newswire Association LLC (2007). Groundbreaking Digital Experience for Endeavour Shuttle Launch (English). PR Newswire Association LLC. Retrieved on September 23, 2007.
- ^ NASA (2006). Glossary (English). NASA. Retrieved on July 11, 2007.
- ^ CNN (2004). Frances tears panels from NASA shuttle hangar (English). CNN. Retrieved on September 23, 2007.
- ^ a b Mansfield, Cheryl L. (11 January 2007). Restoring Old Glory and a Massive Meatball (English). NASA. Retrieved on July 11, 2007.
- Vehicle Assembly Building in the Structurae database
- VAB 3D Exploration at Microsoft Live Labs Photosyth
- Brevard County listings at the National Register of Historic Places
- 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
- Vehicle Assembly Building is at coordinates Coordinates:
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| Main articles | Space Shuttle · Space Shuttle program |  |
| Components | Orbiter · Solid Rocket Booster · External Tank · Main Engines · Orbital Maneuvering System | |
| 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 · Shuttle Carrier Aircraft · Space Shuttle America (motion simulator ride) · Space Shuttle Explorer (shuttle replica) | |