Opening after nearly three years of construction in 1966, the Vehicle Assembly Building, or VAB, is one of the world’s largest structures by volume. The VAB covers 8 acres and is 525 tall, 716 ft long, 518 ft wide, and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet of space. The American flag on the exterior of the building is 209 feet long and 110 feet wide.

Originally built for assembly of the Apollo/Saturn vehicles, the VAB later supported Space Shuttle operations, providing four high bay bells for vertical assembly, checkout, and protective storage of launch vehicles and spacecraft. The 4 high bay areas are used for integration and stacking of the complete Space Shuttle vehicle, including the external tank, payload canister operations and solid rocket booster handling. The Low Bay area contains Space Shuttle main engine maintenance and overhaul shops, and serves as a holding area.

Initially, NASA outfitted two of the cells for assembly and checkout of the Saturn 5 launch vehicles and one cell for the Saturn one-B launch vehicles. The first Mobile Launcher moved into the building in January 1966 and 4 months later the first Apollo –Saturn 5, rolled out of the VAB. Designed around the handling of Saturn 5 rockets, the box-type structure is more economical and eliminates the need for a separate crane for each bay.

As the Apollo program ended, the VAB transitioned for use by the Space Shuttle program for mating Shuttle components. The Shuttle configuration consists of four primary components, one orbiter, two Solid Rocket Boosters and one External Tank. For each launch, NASA shipped the Solid Rocket Boosters from Brigham City, Utah and the shuttle’s external tank, produced by Lockheed Martin, from New Orleans, Louisiana.

The VAB has been home to five NASA orbiters; Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor staging the launches for all shuttle launches since the launch of Columbia with STS-1 in 1981.

As NASA continues to move forward and expand its space exploration programs, the VAB continues to support preparation and assembly for launch.

The Vehicle Assembly Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.