Iconic Building Remains a Pillar of America’s Spaceport

By Bob Granath

The Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, is the most recognizable structure at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. It is so big, it can be seen from miles away. Now that the center is a premier, multi-user spaceport, industry partners soon will share the facility. It also is the only building in the world where human spaceflight rockets have been prepared for trips to low-Earth orbit, the Moon and — in the future – to Mars.

Construction of the VAB began 57 years ago this summer. After serving through the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs, the mammoth structure has been renovated to accommodate future launch vehicles and continues to be a major part of America’s efforts to explore space.

Earlier this year, the American Society of Civil Engineers named the iconic facility a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. The VAB is the first building at Kennedy to earn this distinction.

A plaque presented to Center Director Bob Cabana on Jan. 10, 2020 reads:

“Built in 1966 at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Vehicle Assembly Building is 525 feet tall, 716 feet long and 518 feet wide. It covers 8 acres and encloses 129,328,000 cubic feet of space. When constructed, it was the largest building in the world by volume, and remains the tallest building in the U.S. outside of an urban area. The Vehicle Assembly Building continues to be a central element of NASA’s plans to launch people and equipment deep into space for missions of exploration.”

How Big is It?

The Vehicle Assembly Building is so big . . . New York’s Yankee Stadium could be placed on the roof with room left to park 2,500 cars.

It’s so big . . . the United Nations building could be lowered on its side and could fit through any one of the four vertical high bay doors.

It’s so big . . . the VAB creates its own weather inside – well . . . not really.

For years, “urban legend” had it that with more than 129 million cubic feet, the Vehicle Assembly Building could create its own weather. The idea came from the fact that when the doors are open to Florida’s heat and humidity, condensation can collect on the steel girders near the ceiling and drip on those working below.

For more VAB factoids, see the infographic at the end of this article.

Built for Apollo

Construction began with driving the first steel pilings on Aug. 2, 1963. It was part of NASA’s massive effort to send astronauts to the Moon for the Apollo Program. Altogether, 4,225 pilings were driven down 164 feet to bedrock.

The tallest portions of the VAB are the four high bays. There are two on the east side, and two on the west. On both sides are four high-bay doors, each designed to open, allowing rollout of the Apollo/Saturn V Moon rockets mounted atop launch umbilical tower platforms.

The lower structure, called the low bay, has large areas of its own that may be used to store rocket components. A transfer aisle down the center of the VAB connects the bays, allowing massive components and equipment to be rolled into the building, lifted and assembled on specialized launcher platforms that are transported to launch pads.

To accommodate moving, processing and stacking rocket stages, 71 cranes and hoists, including two 250-ton bridge cranes, were installed.

The VAB was built 3.5 miles from Launch Complex 39A and 4.2 miles from Launch Complex 39B. A pair of crawler-transporters, among the largest machines ever built to move on land, carry the assembled rockets to the pads.

The first rocket stacked and rolled out from the VAB was the Saturn V 500F facilities verification vehicle. It moved to Pad 39A on May 25, 1966, exactly five years to the day after President John F. Kennedy asked Congress to authorize “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.”

Modified to Support the Space Shuttle

After the conclusion of Apollo in 1975, the building was refurbished to accommodate the Space Shuttle. The first was the shuttle test orbiter, Enterprise, stacked and rolled to Pad 39A on May 1, 1979 to check out changes for the new program.

For each mission, the shuttle solid rocket boosters were stacked atop one of three mobile launcher platforms. The external fuel tank was attached between the two boosters and the shuttle orbiter mounted to the tank.

Following three decades of flight, the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011.

In tests for future launch vehicles, Ares I-X was stacked in the VAB as the first-stage prototype and design concept demonstrator in the Ares I program. Using Space Shuttle solid rocket booster segments, it was considered as a launch system for human spaceflight developed by NASA and successfully launched Oct. 28, 2009

Artemis Exploration Program

During 2012, Space Shuttle-era work platforms were removed from the VAB’s high bay 3 as a project of Exploration Ground Systems, or EGS, to accommodate the Space Launch System, or SLS, rocket and Orion spacecraft. With the modifications, the building will be able to accommodate multiple launch vehicle types.

SLS is the agency’s advanced heavy-lift launch vehicle and the most powerful rocket ever built, providing a new capability for human exploration beyond Earth orbit. The new rocket and spacecraft are key elements of the Artemis exploration program, NASA’s effort to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon.

Some of the utilities and systems replaced in the VAB have been used since the facility was built. This initial work was required to support any launch vehicle operated from Launch Complex 39 and will allow NASA to begin modernizing the facilities while vehicle-specific requirements were being developed.

The work included removal of over 150 miles of obsolete Apollo- and Space Shuttle-era cabling. This made room for installation of more efficient, state-of-the-art command, communication, control and power systems needed to perform testing and verification prior to the SLS and other rockets being rolled out to the launch pad.

Space Launch System & Orion

In the summer of 2018, the EGS mobile launcher, designed to support the SLS launch vehicle, was transported into the VAB atop crawler-transporter 2. Standing 380 feet tall, the mobile launcher will be used to assemble, process and launch the SLS and Orion. Following fit checks and testing, the mobile launcher rolled out on June 27, 2019, for a trip to Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39B for final validation and verification testing.

The mobile launcher returned to the VAB on Dec. 20, 2019 following the run-troughs at Pad 39B. The mobile launcher will remain inside the VAB until the vehicle is stacked with Orion atop the SLS rocket ready to return to the pad for the launch of the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission around the Moon.

The Artemis Program is designed to use innovative new technologies and systems to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. NASA will be collaborating with commercial and international partners to perform sustainable missions. From there, NASA will use what was learned on and around the Moon to send astronauts to Mars.

In recent months, engineers and technicians also have been testing procedures for processing stages for the SLS rocket. The 212-foot-long SLS core stage pathfinder arrived on NASA’s Pegasus Barge at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39 turn basin wharf on Sept. 27, 2019.

Teams from EGS and Test and Operations Support Contractor, Jacobs, practiced offloading, moving and stacking maneuvers, using essential ground support equipment in training employees and certifying that all the equipment works properly. In a crucial test on Oct. 16, 2019, a crane in the VAB’s high bay 3 successfully lifted the SLS pathfinder stage in high bay 3.

As Kennedy now operates as a premier, multi-user spaceport, the VAB will be used by its first commercial tenant.

During a ceremony on Aug. 16, 2019, in Northrop Grumman signed a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement with NASA for use of the building. The company will assemble and test its new OmegA rocket inside high bay 2.

Northrop Grumman also plans to modify the Space Shuttle-era mobile launcher platform-3 to serve as the rocket’s assembly and launch platform. According to the company’s website, OmegA is being developed as “an intermediate/heavy-class rocket designed to launch national security missions and a broad range of commercial missions.”

As plans move ahead to outfit the Vehicle Assembly Building with the new infrastructure, code upgrades and safety improvements, the facility will continue in its role as a central hub for the Florida spaceport. As it is used well into the future, the VAB will play a key role in helping astronauts to put boots on Mars.

How Big is It?

This infographic points out some of the “gee whiz” facts associated with the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Everything says, “Big.” Image credit: NASA

U.S. Flag & NASA Emblem

The NASA emblem on the side of the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building is receiving a fresh coat of paint on June 22, 2020. The 525-foot-tall building was last painted in 2007, when repairs were completed after the 2004 Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne tore 845 panels off the structure. It takes over 500 gallons to repaint the 209-by-110-foot flag and the 110-by-132-foot NASA logo. The flag and Bicentennial emblem were originally added in 1976 (see Inset). The Bicentennial emblem was replaced with the NASA logo in 1998. Each stripe on the flag is nine feet wide, the size of the tour buses used to transport visitors around the space center. The stars on the flag are six feet across and the blue portion is approximately the size of a regulation basketball court. Photo credit: Primary image-NASA/Ben Smegelsky/Inset-NASA Archives

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