The VAB or Vehicle Assembly Building is where NASA has constructed rockets for more than half a century. Lets explore the inside! The Vehicle Assembly Building (originally the Vertical Assembly Building), or VAB, is a large building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, designed to assemble large pre-manufactured space vehicle components, such as the massive Saturn V, the Space Shuttle and the Space Launch System, and stack them vertically onto one of three mobile launcher platforms used by NASA.
source.image: Jared Owen
At 3,665,000 m3, it is the eighth-largest building in the world by volume as of 2022. There are four entries to the bays located inside the building, which are the four largest doors in the world. Each door is 139.0 m high, has seven vertical panels and four horizontal panels, and takes 45 minutes to completely open or close. The north entry that leads to the transfer aisle was widened by 12.2 m to allow entry of the shuttle orbiter.
The enormous structure is made of concrete and steel, which has naturally aged over the years. Studies and field investigations were completed to identify corrosion to steel and ground support equipment, and identify and repair spalling in the concrete. A central slot at the north entry allowed for passage of the orbiter’s vertical stabilizer. To lift the components of the Space Shuttle, the VAB housed five overhead bridge cranes, including two capable of lifting 325 tons, and 136 other lifting devices.
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The building has air conditioning equipment, including 125 ventilators on the roof supported by four large air handlers four cylindrical structures west of the building rated at a total 10,000 tons of refrigeration to keep moisture under control. Air in the building can be completely replaced every hour.
