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Vehicle Assembly Building

Seen across the water of the Launch Complex 39 turn basin, a crawler-transporter, carrying Mobile Launcher Platform (MLP) number 3 with a set of twin solid rocket boosters bolted atop, crawls out of the 525-foot-tall Vehicle Assembly Building during the second engineering analysis vibration test on the crawler and MLP. The crawler is moving at various speeds up to 1 mph in an effort to achieve vibration data gathering goals as it leaves the VAB, travels toward Launch Pad 39A and then returns. Source: NASAPhoto Number: KSC-03PD-3166
A flatbed truck carrying pieces of debris of Space Shuttle Columbia arrives outside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The debris is being transferred from the Columbia Debris Hangar to the VAB for permanent storage. More than 83,000 pieces of debris were shipped to KSC during search and recovery efforts in East Texas. That represents about 38 percent of the dry weight of Columbia, equaling almost 85,000 pounds. Source: NASA Photo Number: KSC-03PD-2614
Flatbed trucks carrying some of the debris of Space Shuttle Columbia approach the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). The debris is being transferred from the Columbia Debris Hangar to the VAB for permanent storage. More than 83,000 pieces of debris were shipped to KSC during search and recovery efforts in East Texas. That represents about 38 percent of the dry weight of Columbia, equaling almost 85,000 pounds. Source: NASAPhoto Number: KSC-03PD-2613.
Viewed from outside the Vehicle Assembly Building, the stack of external tank and solid rocket boosters on Columbia can be seen sitting atop the Mobile Launcher Platform. The Shuttle never left the VAB due to a steering problem on the crawler-transporter under the MLP. The problem was a faulty bearing in the steering linkage of Power Truck Drive D, which was detected before the C-T left the VAB. Source: NASAPhoto Number: KSC-02PD-0036

General Information

Function / usage: Spacecraft hangar / assembly building
Completed in: 1965

Geographic Information & Related Structures

Location: Cape Canaveral, Brevard County, Florida, USA, North America
Part of:

Technical Information

Dimensions

width 158 m
height 160 m
length 218 m
number of floors (above ground) 40
building volume 3 664 883 m3

Quantities

structural steel 89 421 t
concrete volume 49 696 m3

Materials

building structure steel

Participants

Structural engineering
Contractor

Relevant Web Sites

Relevant Publications

Internal Information

Structure-ID: s0003280
Created: 19/05/2002
Last Updated: 05/03/2013