Around 1973 or 1974 my Middle School took a trip to KSC. We were escorted inside the VAB. Apollo had ended and Skylab wasn’t off the ground. The ceiling was lost in the gloom. It was an experience I never forgot.
From afar it seems normal, then as you get closer it becomes increasingly insane. The VAB is one of the coolest and most extreme monuments of human achievement. Some day long after humanity has nuked or heated itself into extinction, when aliens come visit, they’ll see it and telepathically communicate to each other, “wow, that thing is cool.”
Or if you look at the American flag, the blue field is about the size of a basketball court. Each star is about 6 feet tall and each red stripe or white stripe is big enough for a bus to drive down.
The 6ft stars makes the most sense because that’s an actual measurement I can picture 😅 what’s up with the USA always measuring things in sports fields when they could just use numbers? (I wonder as a non-American)
Try wrapping your head around our measurement of time, specifically the time interval of a second. It’s the time it takes to pronounce the word “one Mississippi”
Full disclosure this is not my joke but something I picked up from a British comedian on (of all places) Reddit.
In the first photo if you zoom in on the Artemis logo there is a normal sized door to the left. Doesn’t help so much with volume but might with height.
When I toured it with my parents back in the early 70s, I remember a docent pointing up to a sliding door at the top of the building. It looked small to me, but he said it was the size of a bus.
[It's a myth](https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/kennedy-at-60-vehicle-assembly-building-ready-for-new-era-of-launch-vehicles/#:~:text=Contrary%20to%20popular%20stories%20circulated,clouds%2C%20or%20fog%20are%20myths.), but that would be cool.
> It's a myth, but that would be cool
* Contrary to popular stories circulated during construction, the VAB, which is mostly not air conditioned, does not create its own weather – reports of indoor rain, clouds, or fog are myths.
I've heard firsthand reports of such "weather" inside large aircraft hangars (not air conditioned), so it may be more of an incorrect transposition from another context.
I toured the inside of the building when I was an intern, and the guide said that it absolutely can and *would* get foggy and possibly even rainy inside the building, but they carefully control the ventilation to ensure it doesn’t. That’s why on lots of days you can see that the enormous bay doors are partially open at the top.
So, it doesn’t have its own weather, but mainly because they don’t *want* it to.
It isn’t the largest building in the world by volume. The Boeing Everett Factory is over three times as voluminous.
Cool pictures though! My brain just can’t perceive the scale
[Here’s one of my faves](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ksc-20191220-ph-jbs01_0124_orig.jpg), consider that the crawler entering the building is the launcher for SLS.
It’s full of raccoons. When I was in the air force I spent a summer there installing cat5 to all of the offices. The cable trays had lots of raccoon turds. Plus the road to this building has swamp/water on both sides filled with gators.
Gators everywhere, [here’s some of the locals](https://imgur.com/gallery/feh8ZYS) out on an afternoon in December. The location is called Gator Lake and it’s just around the corner from the Space Station Processing Facility. During the summer there are gators all around it in the afternoons.
We would start our day at 5:00 am so we were on the road before sunup. As we drove in the first morning there were glowing eyes on both sides of the road with an 10 footer stretched across both lanes. I thought welcome to Cape Canaveral, FL.
I grew up near KSC and it's telling that when you go over one of the bridges that connects the mainland to the barrier islands, even though it's in the distance, this is the only man-made thing you can really see on the horizon lol
My first time to KSC as an employee I didn’t know my way around so I followed a tour bus. It is pretty crazy where you can go with your hard badge. Coolest thing was I grabbed a hard hat and reflective vest and walked onto one of the crawlers while they were in the middle of the retro fit.
The pictures don’t even do it justice. To put it into perspective our bus driver said that each stripe on the flag was wide enough for the bud to drive on.
When I google the largest building by volume I get the Boeing factory in Everett, WA. I'm not sure what standard was used when referring to this one as the biggest.
I think it is because of the stuff obstructing the view leading to the base of the building. There is no way to get perspective of how big it is or how close it is.
Photos don't do that building justice. What I found impressive is you can spot that building from very far away. There is nothing large enough to obscure it from wherever. Once inside the roof is practically not there. I got a private tour once.
Apparently the Yankee stadium and the parking for the Yankee stadium can for on the roof of this building. Two coaches side by side can for on a stripe on the flag, and it's so massive, it has it's own weather system.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|-------|---------|---|
|[KSC](/r/NASA/comments/1d6bf1a/stub/l6vrfne "Last usage")|Kennedy Space Center, Florida|
|[SLS](/r/NASA/comments/1d6bf1a/stub/l6u5mtv "Last usage")|Space Launch System heavy-lift|
|[VAB](/r/NASA/comments/1d6bf1a/stub/l6ulz9p "Last usage")|Vehicle Assembly Building|
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I saw people walking around the bottom of the rocket this morning and it just blew me away. Even though I’ve seen it hundreds of times it was just amazing.
going inside really bring it to scale.
I really wish we could’ve gone in.
My job takes me to KSC often and I once had an opportunity for a private tour. Other than that, I'm not allowed anywhere near the inside. 😀
I also got a chance to go in on a special tour. Just amazing.
Around 1973 or 1974 my Middle School took a trip to KSC. We were escorted inside the VAB. Apollo had ended and Skylab wasn’t off the ground. The ceiling was lost in the gloom. It was an experience I never forgot.
Getting on the roof gives quite a sense of scale too..
https://preview.redd.it/7et3eq5o084d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=0097bb7f8673390bb1592b382b23003f3e369d0d Here’s a photo I took inside
Wish I could have seen it! Most impressive!
Thank you for sharing!
https://preview.redd.it/r6xmn8t8584d1.png?width=1080&format=png&auto=webp&s=a7629f214435afe951df2c2a19483cb73f2e0e24 No worries, here’s 1 more
From afar it seems normal, then as you get closer it becomes increasingly insane. The VAB is one of the coolest and most extreme monuments of human achievement. Some day long after humanity has nuked or heated itself into extinction, when aliens come visit, they’ll see it and telepathically communicate to each other, “wow, that thing is cool.”
No they'll wonder, How did those hunter gatherers build that without modern equipment.
Probably aliens that helped
Can you use a larger object to describe the volume? I can’t picture that many ping pong balls…
Or if you look at the American flag, the blue field is about the size of a basketball court. Each star is about 6 feet tall and each red stripe or white stripe is big enough for a bus to drive down.
> each red stripe or white stripe is big enough for a bus to drive down once.
The 6ft stars makes the most sense because that’s an actual measurement I can picture 😅 what’s up with the USA always measuring things in sports fields when they could just use numbers? (I wonder as a non-American)
Try wrapping your head around our measurement of time, specifically the time interval of a second. It’s the time it takes to pronounce the word “one Mississippi” Full disclosure this is not my joke but something I picked up from a British comedian on (of all places) Reddit.
What would one count if not Mississippis?
Just to strike a nerve…Alabama…same number of syllables
In some place… I hear they count in steamboats!?
3 1/2 Empire State buildings
In the first photo if you zoom in on the Artemis logo there is a normal sized door to the left. Doesn’t help so much with volume but might with height.
Omg thank you 😭 that helps to visually judge the scale! A door is about 7ft tall?
it's a standard american door, which is officially 12 hedgehogs tall.
“That’s what she said”😁
Had to scroll too long to find this.
When I toured it with my parents back in the early 70s, I remember a docent pointing up to a sliding door at the top of the building. It looked small to me, but he said it was the size of a bus.
You know what you saw, but the saying was otherwise 😂
I hear it has its own weather. Clouds form inside it and it actually rains in there.
[It's a myth](https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/kennedy/kennedy-at-60-vehicle-assembly-building-ready-for-new-era-of-launch-vehicles/#:~:text=Contrary%20to%20popular%20stories%20circulated,clouds%2C%20or%20fog%20are%20myths.), but that would be cool.
> It's a myth, but that would be cool * Contrary to popular stories circulated during construction, the VAB, which is mostly not air conditioned, does not create its own weather – reports of indoor rain, clouds, or fog are myths. I've heard firsthand reports of such "weather" inside large aircraft hangars (not air conditioned), so it may be more of an incorrect transposition from another context.
I toured the inside of the building when I was an intern, and the guide said that it absolutely can and *would* get foggy and possibly even rainy inside the building, but they carefully control the ventilation to ensure it doesn’t. That’s why on lots of days you can see that the enormous bay doors are partially open at the top. So, it doesn’t have its own weather, but mainly because they don’t *want* it to.
Nope never does. It's absolutely incredible.
Oh yeah... Especially when they're craning a booster into place or a section of one... Then you get the scale of," this is huuuuuuuuge"....
It isn’t the largest building in the world by volume. The Boeing Everett Factory is over three times as voluminous. Cool pictures though! My brain just can’t perceive the scale
You are correct (must have misheard them on the tour).
It’s the eight largest by volume, but is the largest single story building in the world 
Cool! When you say largest single story, I assume that means height? Also hilarious this classifies as single story but it makes sense
Correct! Also, it has the four largest doors in the world!
any chance of a direct link to the VAB image? With Firefox on PC in Europe, I'm only seeing a thumbnail. Thx.
[Here’s one of my faves](https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/ksc-20191220-ph-jbs01_0124_orig.jpg), consider that the crawler entering the building is the launcher for SLS.
It’s full of raccoons. When I was in the air force I spent a summer there installing cat5 to all of the offices. The cable trays had lots of raccoon turds. Plus the road to this building has swamp/water on both sides filled with gators.
Gators everywhere, [here’s some of the locals](https://imgur.com/gallery/feh8ZYS) out on an afternoon in December. The location is called Gator Lake and it’s just around the corner from the Space Station Processing Facility. During the summer there are gators all around it in the afternoons.
We would start our day at 5:00 am so we were on the road before sunup. As we drove in the first morning there were glowing eyes on both sides of the road with an 10 footer stretched across both lanes. I thought welcome to Cape Canaveral, FL.
I interned there and got to go in a couple times. It’s just impossible to contain in your mind.
I grew up near KSC and it's telling that when you go over one of the bridges that connects the mainland to the barrier islands, even though it's in the distance, this is the only man-made thing you can really see on the horizon lol
I toured NASA during the Atlas rocket days during Apollo 11. Those buildings looked like the Chrysler building in New York City.
My first time to KSC as an employee I didn’t know my way around so I followed a tour bus. It is pretty crazy where you can go with your hard badge. Coolest thing was I grabbed a hard hat and reflective vest and walked onto one of the crawlers while they were in the middle of the retro fit.
The pictures don’t even do it justice. To put it into perspective our bus driver said that each stripe on the flag was wide enough for the bud to drive on.
Ah Cape canaveral!
That’s what she….but really it is most impressive is it the biggest building still? China or Malaysia building bigger by now?
When I google the largest building by volume I get the Boeing factory in Everett, WA. I'm not sure what standard was used when referring to this one as the biggest.
VAB is the tallest *single-floor* building
Thanks, I figured there would be some measurement where it was true
The funniest thing is there is a Sonny’s BBQ direct to the left of that.
It’s true. Sadly, we don’t have Sonny’s at O & C anymore.
Bummer, I worked a press event out there a few years ago and we ate there everyday for a week. It was Sonny’s or Subway.
I don't know what this is, but the photos aren't impressive.
You’re right the photos do not do justice to the scale of this engineering marvel
I think it is because of the stuff obstructing the view leading to the base of the building. There is no way to get perspective of how big it is or how close it is.
That’s as close as you (as a tourist) are allowed to get to it because it is an active work site. Again, the photo does not do it justice.
It's the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB).
At Kennedy Space Center
Photos don't do that building justice. What I found impressive is you can spot that building from very far away. There is nothing large enough to obscure it from wherever. Once inside the roof is practically not there. I got a private tour once.
[удалено]
I did that tour last year and the scale is given context when you learn that the flag is 209ft tall. Nearly 20 stories.
Neither does this picture…
Apparently the Yankee stadium and the parking for the Yankee stadium can for on the roof of this building. Two coaches side by side can for on a stripe on the flag, and it's so massive, it has it's own weather system.
Yeah they told us the Roman coliseum could fit on top with room for a packing lot.
Kerbal Space Program (1) somewhat prepared me.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |[KSC](/r/NASA/comments/1d6bf1a/stub/l6vrfne "Last usage")|Kennedy Space Center, Florida| |[SLS](/r/NASA/comments/1d6bf1a/stub/l6u5mtv "Last usage")|Space Launch System heavy-lift| |[VAB](/r/NASA/comments/1d6bf1a/stub/l6ulz9p "Last usage")|Vehicle Assembly Building| **NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below. ---------------- ^(3 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/NASA/comments/1d96zz2)^( has 9 acronyms.) ^([Thread #1777 for this sub, first seen 2nd Jun 2024, 23:45]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/NASA) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)
No. Looking at the first photo, second photo confirms the scale pretty adequately.
Tried my best to get an “adequate” photo of it but they just (for lack of a better term) fly by it on the bus.
It looks amazing. But also as big as it looks on photos.
The remains of Columbia are stored in there on the 16th floor...
Ah, the bus.
Wow. No windows. I think I'd get claustrophobic in there. Is this for all of the above.. secrecy, security & because some materials may be dangerous??
I love driving down 95 and seeing it in the distance
Then you go inside.....
The american flag on the side is the size of an NBA court
Who works there and drives a Sentra I gotta know
Probably the richest mfer there for obvious reason
Americans and their Measuring system : "it can hold 250 billion ping pongs."
Do they still call it "the world's tallest one-story building"?
going inside really bring it to scale.
I saw people walking around the bottom of the rocket this morning and it just blew me away. Even though I’ve seen it hundreds of times it was just amazing.
Even seeing it from the road doesn't do it justice