The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at

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Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten NASA facilities#List of field c ...

(KSC) in Florida, designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive

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, the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable launch system, reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. ...

and the

Space Launch System The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American Super heavy-lift launch vehicle, super heavy-lift Expendable launch system, expendable launch vehicle used by NASA. As the primary launch vehicle of the Artemis program, Artemis Moon landing progra ...

, and

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them vertically onto one of three mobile launcher platforms used by NASA. As of March 2022, the first

(SLS) rocket was assembled inside in preparation for the

Artemis I Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1), was an uncrewed Lunar orbit, Moon-orbiting mission that was launched in November 2022. As the first major spaceflight of NASA's Artemis program, Artemis I marked the agency's return to lunar e ...

mission, launched on November 16, 2022. At , it is the eighth-largest building in the world by volume as of 2022. The building is at

Launch Complex 39 Launch Complex 39 (LC-39) is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, Merritt Island in Florida, United States. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built as the Apollo program's ...

at KSC, south of

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, north of

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, and due east of Orlando, on

Merritt Island Merritt Island is a peninsula, commonly referred to as an island, in Brevard County, Florida, United States, located on the eastern Florida coast, along the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the name of an unincorporated town in the central and sout ...

on the

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. The VAB is the largest single-story building in the world, was the tallest building () in Florida until 1974, and is the tallest building in the United States outside an urban area.

History

The VAB, completed in 1966, was originally built for the vertical assembly of the

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

–

space vehicle and was originally referred to as the ''Vertical Assembly Building''. In anticipation of post-Apollo projects such as the

program, it was renamed the Vehicle Assembly Building on February 3, 1965. It was subsequently used to mate the Space Shuttle orbiters to their external fuel tanks and solid rocket boosters. Once the complete space vehicle was assembled on a mobile launcher platform, a crawler-transporter moved it to Launch Complex-39A or 39B. The building was designed with future expansion in mind but ultimately ended up being larger than NASA would ever need. Initially, during the planning of Kennedy Space Center, as many as five launch pads were proposed, and designs for a six-bay VAB were drawn up. However, as the plans were scaled back to just two launch pads, the VAB was reduced to four bays. The contractors built the VAB to accommodate potential expansion to six bays, but such expansion was never required. In fact, only three bays were ever connected to the crawlerway. Bay 2, located on the west side of the building (farther from the launch pads), saw limited use during the Saturn V era and was eventually converted into a storage area for the Shuttle program. Before the destruction of in 2003, NASA installed a sub-roof inside the VAB to deal with falling concrete debris due to the building's age. The VAB was designated as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the

American Society of Civil Engineers The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) is a tax-exempt professional body founded in 1852 to represent members of the civil engineering profession worldwide. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, it is the oldest national engineering soci ...

in 2020.

Construction

In 1963, NASA contracted Urbahn Architects to design and build the VAB as part of NASA's effort to send astronauts to the Moon for the

Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

. Construction began with driving the first steel foundation piles on Aug. 2, 1963. Altogether, 4,225 pilings were driven down to bedrock with a foundation consisting of of concrete. Construction of the VAB required of steel. The building was completed in 1966. The VAB is tall, long and wide. It covers , and encloses of space. Located on Florida's Atlantic coast, the building was constructed to withstand

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its ...

s and

tropical storm A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its lo ...

s. Despite this, it has received damage from several hurricanes (see below).

Capabilities

The north end of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) contains four “high bays” designed as enclosed, protected spaces for stacking rocket stages, payloads, and other components vertically on a mobile launcher platform. This configuration mirrors how the rocket will stand on the launch pad. Components and stages typically enter the VAB through the south side, which houses eight "low bays" used for storage and pre-assembly preparations. Platforms in both the high and low bays can be adjusted to provide crews safe access to all parts of the rocket. A transfer aisle runs the length of the building. The VAB is equipped with five overhead cranes, including two capable of lifting up to 325 tons, as well as 136 additional lifting devices. These systems enable precise handling and assembly of heavy components. Once the launch vehicle is fully assembled and tested, a crawler-transporter enters the VAB, lifts the mobile launch platform with the attached spacecraft, and transports it to the launch pad. Each high bay features a massive door—the largest in the world—standing tall. Each door comprises seven vertical panels and four horizontal panels and takes about 45 minutes to open or close. To manage internal conditions, the VAB is equipped with air conditioning, including 125 ventilators on the roof and four large air handlers located west of the building. The system provides a combined 10,000 tons of refrigeration (120,000,000 BTU/ hr, 35 MW), not to cool the building, but to control moisture. The air inside the building can be completely replaced every hour. When the building's large doors are opened, fog can enter and linger, leading to incorrect but persistent rumors that the VAB generates its own weather or forms clouds.

Exterior

The American flag painted on the building was the largest in the world when added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations, along with the star logo of the anniversary, later replaced by the

NASA insignia The NASA has three official insignia, insignias, although the one with stylized red curved text (the "worm") was retired from official use from May 22, 1992, until April 3, 2020, when it was reinstated as a secondary logo. The three logos include ...

in 1998. It is high and wide. Each of the stars on the flag is across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and each of the stripes is wide. 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" insignia. The work repaired visible damage from years of storms and weathering. The flag and logo had been previously repainted in 1998 for NASA's 40th anniversary. Vehicle Assembly Building damage from Hurricane Frances night view

Vehicle Assembly Building damage from Hurricane Frances night view

The most extensive exterior damage occurred during the storm season of 2004, when Hurricane Frances blew off 850

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

panels from the building, resulting in about of new openings in the sides. 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 to repair. Damage caused by these hurricanes was still visible in 2007. 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. The building has been used as a backdrop in several Hollywood movies including '' Marooned'', '' SpaceCamp'', ''

Apollo 13 Apollo 13 (April 1117, 1970) was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo program, Apollo space program and would have been the third Moon landing. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the landing was abort ...

'', '' Contact'', and others.

Future

Originally, after the Space Shuttle was intended to be retired in 2010, the VAB would have been renovated for stacking of the Ares I and Ares V launch vehicles for the

Constellation program The Constellation program (abbreviated CxP) was a crewed spaceflight program developed by NASA, the space agency of the United States, from 2005 to 2009. The major goals of the program were "completion of the International Space Station" and a " ...

; however, the Constellation program was cancelled in 2010. The Space Shuttle itself was retired in 2011, after which NASA temporarily (as early as 2012) offered public tours of the VAB. These tours were temporarily discontinued in February 2014 to allow for renovations to take place. The NASA FY2013 budget included US$143.7 million for Construction of Facilities (CoF) requirements in support of what is now known as the

Artemis program The Artemis program is a Exploration of the Moon, Moon exploration program led by the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), formally established in 2017 via Space Policy Directive 1. The program's stated long-ter ...

and its vehicles, including the

(SLS) and Orion spacecraft. NASA began modifying Launch Complex 39 at KSC to support the new SLS in 2014, beginning with major repairs, code upgrades and safety improvements to the Launch Control Center, Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and the VAB Utility Annex. This initial work is required to support any launch vehicle operated from Launch Complex 39 and will allow NASA to begin modernizing the facilities, while vehicle-specific requirements are being developed. The VAB could be used to some extent for assembly and processing of any future vehicles using Launch Complex 39, in addition to renovations for SLS capabilities. On June 16, 2015, NASA released an announcement for proposals (AFP) seeking interest in using the VAB High Bay 2 and other complex facilities for commercial use in "assembling, integration, and testing of launch vehicles". This move is in line with the intent to migrate KSC towards acting as a spaceport accessible to both government and commercial ventures. On April 21, 2016, NASA announced the selection of

Orbital ATK Orbital ATK Inc. was an American aerospace manufacturer and defense industry company. It was formed in February 9, 2015 from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alliant Techsystems (ATK). Orbital ATK designed, built, and de ...

(bought by

Northrop Grumman Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational Aerospace manufacturer, aerospace and Arms industry, defense company. With 97,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $40 billion, it is one of the world's largest Arms industry ...

as of 2019) to begin negotiations for High Bay 2. The "potential agreement" included an existing mobile launcher platform. NASA subsequently completed the agreement in August 2019 to lease High Bay 2 and Mobile Launcher Platform 3 to Northrop Grumman for use with their

OmegA Omega (, ; uppercase Ω, lowercase ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numerals, Greek numeric system/isopsephy (gematria), it has a value ...

launch vehicle. However, development of OmegA was subsequently cancelled in September 2020. Northrop Grumman had yet to make any modifications to High Bay 2, and were using it for the storage of OmegA hardware. This hardware was scheduled to be removed from the VAB and returned to Northrop Grumman by the end of September 2020.

Gallery

File:VAB exterior and LCC.jpg, Aerial view of the Vehicle Assembly Building at

in 2011 File:2019VAB.jpg, The VAB in 2019 File:Aerial View of Launch Complex 39.jpg, Overview of the VAB and LCC industrial area File:VAB transfer aisle.jpg, '' Endeavour'' on its way into the VAB during the launch preparations for

STS-89 STS-89 was a Space Shuttle mission to the ''Mir'' space station flown by Space Shuttle Space Shuttle Endeavour, ''Endeavour'', and launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 22 January 1998. Crew Crew notes STS-89 was originally scheduled ...

. At the top of the doorway is the slot for the vertical stabilizer. File:VAB Exterior Photos (KSC-20220119-PH-CSH01 0011).jpg, The VAB as viewed from the nearby parking lot, 19 January 2022 File:Artemis 1 First Rollout (KSC-20220317-PH-KLS03 0077).jpg,

Artemis 1 rollout out of the VAB, 17 March 2022 File:VAB Beside the Artemis 1 lauching off in OBZ II PTZ Cam.jpg, VAB Beside the SLS Block 1 Artemis 1 during the Launch, 16 November 2022

References

External links

*
Vehicle Assembly Building, High Bay and Low Bay
a
Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs

{{Artemis program Apollo program Artemis program Buildings and structures in Merritt Island, Florida Kennedy Space Center National Register of Historic Places in Brevard County, Florida Space Shuttle program Buildings and structures completed in 1966 Cubic buildings 1966 establishments in Florida Integration facilities Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks