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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) 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, where despite the building's huge height, the conducting rod at the tip of the Saturn V had to be removed to fit inside the building. 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 ft³ (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 and the stripes are large enough to drive a tour bus on. 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 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. 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 ft² (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. It is expected that, starting in 2008-2009, it will start the transition for the assembly and process 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 Image:VABConstruction.jpg|The VAB during its early steel construction phase (1963), along with the Mobile Launcher Platform and tower assemblies for the Saturn V rocket. Image:VAB under construction.jpg|Another shot of VAB construction. Image:VAB aerial 1977.jpg|The building in 1977. Image:Vehicle Assembly Building damage from Hurricane Frances night view.jpg|Xenon lights illuminate the Vehicle Assembly Building where workers make repairs on September 30, 2004 after Hurricane Frances. Image:DiscoveryVABrollout.jpg|Space Shuttle Discovery rolling out of the VAB to the launch pad for mission STS-121. Image:STS-116 Stacking.jpg|Discovery is raised into High Bay 3 of the VAB for mating with the External Tank and boosters for STS-116 | ||||||||
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