Vehicle Assembly Building

The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) is an industrial building at the John F. Kennedy Space Center. It is a site for the assembly of pre-made rocket stages, spacecrafts and related parts onto a mobile launch platform. Multiple spacecrafts, such as the Saturn V and Ares I were assembled in the VAB, as well as the Space Launch System. Construction began in 1963, and was completed in 1966. It is 525 feet (160 m) tall, 716 feet (218.2 m) long and 518 feet (157.9 m) wide, made from approximately 100,000 tons of steel, and contains 3,665,000 m3 of internal volume. The VAB has four large assembly areas called high bays, with one huge central aisle where the rocket parts are loaded in. The Launch Control Center is adjacent to the side of the building, with a walkway connecting both buildings.