Ana W
The VAB What a Sight to See

The VAB, what a sight to see. You are probably wondering what in the world is the VAB. The VAB is the second largest building by volume in the world. It full name is the vehicle assembly building. It is where NASA assembles the shuttle for takeoff. This building was also used to assemble the rockets that sent men to the moon. Two shuttles can fit in the VAB at the same time. The doors are 129 thousand square feet. There is an American flag painted on the side of the VAB that is 109 feet wide and 209 feet long. 1 stripe of the painted flag is as long as a NASA tour bus.

Now, how to get the huge shuttle from the VAB to the launch pad. We use a huge machine called a crawler. When you put the shuttle, its external tank and its two solid rocket boosters together they fit upright on top of the crawler and it goes through the doors of the VAB with 200 feet to spare.

The road that goes from the VAB to the shuttle launch pad is called the crawlerway. It is 3.1 miles long. The crawlerway is very wide and is made from Alabama River rock. Each side of the crawler way (it has two sides, one side for each side of the tracks of the crawler) is the width of an interstate highway. It takes a ful day for the crawler to get from the VAB to the launch pad. Once the Shuttle get to the launch pad it is put in place and ready to go to space. This whole process starts at the huge VAB. The VAB is so huge that even when you are ten miles away you can still see it rising above everything else around it. To understand how big this building is you would have to go to the Kennedy Space Center and see if for yourself.