I went on the most amazing field trip yesterday afternoon. Tom and his father took me on a three-hour tour… no, wait, that's a different story…
What actually happened was that I was given a thorough tour of the Vehicle (originally Vertical) Assembly Building, or VAB, at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. I've worked at KSC for seven years now, but had never been inside the enormous building.
Let's talk about enormous. The VAB is the largest one story building in the world and is the second largest building in the world by volume and even has its own weather inside (employees report that rain clouds form below the ceiling on very humid days*). It is 525 feet tall, 716 feet long and 518 feet wide. It covers 8 acres, and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet of space.
Now that's enormous!
Tom's dad is a director for United Space Alliance and has an office in the VAB. He invited me over for a walk through, and we were joined by Tom and one of Tom's coworkers.
I tried not to be all touristy and look up right away when I walked into the building, but it was hard not to. The ceiling was so far away! One thing that struck me immediately is that everything is so big. The steel beams, the bolts, everything.
I cannot possibly do justice to this story, as it was such a whirlwind tour and I'm still overwhelmed by all that I saw. But I will hit on a few highlights.
The first thing we did was take a look at Ares I-X, the test vehicle for the Ares I. This pencil-like rocket is an incredible 327 feet tall. We had to take an elevator to the 28th floor (as high as we could go) to be able to look down at its top. (the test flight is currently scheduled for October 27)
As astounding as it was to see a rocket so tall, I was much more excited about getting a close-up view of Atlantis, mated to the external tank (ET) and solid rocket boosters (SRBs). We started at the top, when all we could see was the tip of the ET, then we worked our way down, level by level, each time revealing just a little bit more of the orbiter. Finally, we made it to the very bottom, to the mobile launcher platform (MLP), a two-story structure that supports the shuttle stack and serves as the vehicle's launch platform. Tom spent several years working on this particular MLP and was proud to show us around the amazing structure.
There were people working at every level, too, which made it so real and interesting. Also a few other "tourists" like myself, taking photos and staring up with open mouths.
It was an interesting journey, to see everything. We had to ride a number of elevators, including two glass ones, to reach the different levels. I would have been lost in less than a minute, but all three men knew their way around pretty well.
Overall, it was an amazing experience. One that I'm so grateful to have had, as the end of the shuttle program grows nearer.
*Tom tells me that this was many years ago, when the VAB was air conditioned. In all the years he worked in the building, he never saw any rain clouds.
What an absolute treat to get to go in there for a tour!!
Posted by: Denise Baum | October 23, 2009 at 10:30 PM