Things I Liked About America No. 4 - The V.A.B.
This is the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre: it's also known as the V.A.B.
It's where they build rockets. It's where they built the rockets that went to the Moon.
Because it's not next to any other buildings, it's hard to tell the scale, but if you look at those little green things at the bottom, they are full-size palm trees. There are some tiny cars too, which aren't really tiny.
So, as you might imagine, the building is very, very big: the fourth biggest building in the world, our guide told us.
The flag was painted on relatively recently.
The blue oblong at the top is the size of a basketball court, apparently. Just to be there, looking at that building, after all these years of watching rockets launched from nearby, was fantastic.
I like the colour of the sky, too.
It's where they build rockets. It's where they built the rockets that went to the Moon.Because it's not next to any other buildings, it's hard to tell the scale, but if you look at those little green things at the bottom, they are full-size palm trees. There are some tiny cars too, which aren't really tiny.
So, as you might imagine, the building is very, very big: the fourth biggest building in the world, our guide told us.
The flag was painted on relatively recently.
The blue oblong at the top is the size of a basketball court, apparently. Just to be there, looking at that building, after all these years of watching rockets launched from nearby, was fantastic.I like the colour of the sky, too.
posted by Daphne at 5:10 pm
8 Comments:
What did he mean by fourth "biggest building"? Height? Perimeter? Volume? I wonder what numbers one, two and three are?.... Hey, sad git that I am, I went away and found out. Biggest = Boeing Plant in Washington DC (Volume 472 million cubic feet), Second = Airbus A380 Assembly Plant near Toulouse, France. Third = The Aerium in Brandenburg, Germany... The volume of NASA's VAB is 130 million cubic feet.
**gently whispers** The Boeing plant, I do believe, is in the state of Washington which is in the US Pacific northwest.
Thanks for the kind thread Daphne! I've enjoyed reading about your Florida travels.
Oh - did mean to sign the above post! I don't like anonymous writings, usually.
Liz
That sky is the 6th biggest in the world, Daffy.
And before YP asks, that's by volume !
By comparison, the sky over Franks Mountain is only the 135th biggest and if you look closely to the East and West, you can see the edges.
My therapist says I need to stop typing now.......
Thank you, Mr Pudding - blimey, that Boeing Plant's really rather large, isn't it? Good to hear from you again, Liz, and thank you for reading. And, Silverback, never mind the 6th biggest - - what about First Bluest? (I'm worrying about those edges now - - what if it rains and it shrinks and there isn't enough sky left? - - Has your therapist any vacancies?)
Was the enormous crawler on show that was used to transport the saturn rockets to the launch pad in the Sixties ??
Hands up - I made a mistake ! It is Washington State - not DC. Thank you Anonymous...
Yes, David, I am reliably informed, by Silverback who knows such things (thank you), that it's the same crawler that we saw. Apparently there are two: they cost 18 million dollars each and they've each done 2,500 miles even though the journey to the launch pads is only 3.5 miles.
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