55 years after Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA still stacks space future in VAB

Fifty-five years ago Saturday, humanity made its first visit to the lunar surface with Apollo 11. Lifting off atop the gigantic Saturn V rocket on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 mission forever changed the world − and the moon − when Neil Armstrong made that "one small step."

The journey to the moon began here in Brevard − in a building that's become an icon in its own right, a symbol of America's vast spacefaring ambitions.

Really, it's a rocket garage on a super massive scale − the VAB (short for Vehicle Assembly Building) is made up of four towering high bays in a giant one-story structure. Even though it is only one (big) story − the VAB's 525-feet height makes it the equivalent to a 50-story structure. That's taller than the Statue of Liberty and just under half the size of the Empire State Building.

It's from this giant building that the Saturn V rocket rose up and into history. An ambitious post-Apollo program was imagined — one that would have seen the Saturn V fly well beyond the last moon mission in 1972. But it never materialized.

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Next the VAB became the focal point for the Space Shuttle Program, and now 52 years since humanity last set foot on the moon, the VAB is being reconfigured for NASA's Artemis return-to-the-moon program and its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket which aims to propel the first woman and first person of color on the moon no earlier than the second half of 2026.

Sharing an area with a wildlife preserve, the VAB is truly a unique rocket building.

"They always saw pigeons flying around, and every now and then you'd see a hawk pick up a piece of dinner," said Dan McKune, who worked in the VAB as a crane operator during the space shuttle program. "You have bats, but I never saw a mouse or a rat or anything like that."

How NASA's VAB came to be

In 1961, the Space Coast we know today was a much different place. Back before private space companies routinely launched satellites into space, there was swamp land and a race against time and a rival superpower, the Soviet Union, to send Americans to the moon before the end of the decade.

In order to fulfill late president John F. Kennedy's ambition, a large rocket was needed. This was a big ask because the Soviets were already ahead when it came to space with both Sputnik, the first orbiting satellite, and Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space − who orbited the Earth almost a year before John Glenn's historic flight.

This plan included guidance from German scientists, who during WWII, worked on Germany's V-2 ballistic missile.

"After Apollo was initiated in May of 1961, NASA got funding from Congress and bought land on Merritt Island to construct what later became known as the Kennedy Space Center," said James Muncy, former policy maker and founder of PoliSpace, a space policy organization.

The 200-square-miles of land on Merritt Island was purchased by NASA in September of 1961 for approximately $71 million.

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In 1963, construction began on the VAB and it took three years to complete the massive building.

According to NASA, the VAB consists of 98,000 tons of steel, 65,000 cubic yards of concrete and 45,000 steel beams.

When finished, the VAB covered eight acres of land.

"Early on NASA had used hangars at Cape Canaveral to do everything, but for Apollo everything was designed to support the plan," said Muncy.

The Saturn V rocket stood 363 feet tall. It needed a big space.

Close to 3,000 people came to work at this new rocket garage, compared to the 450 employed there currently. Thanks to the Apollo program, the Brevard area saw significant growth.

"The towns and cities around the center really grew a lot in the 1960s," said Elizabeth Kline, the Element Operations Manager for the VAB, speaking of Titusville, Cocoa, Merritt Island, and Cocoa Beach. "If you notice, all the elementary schools are the same design."

First Saturn V rocket in the VAB

According to NASA, the first vehicle to call the VAB home wasn't really a rocket at all. It was a model designed to take measurements ahead of the first actual Saturn V rocket. This "pathfinder" model was rolled to the pad and back before operations on the actual moon rocket began.

Kline said that the first Saturn V to be assembled in the VAB was for Apollo 4, an uncrewed mission launched in 1967. Inside one of the four VAB high bays, the massive Saturn V was constructed in stages, stacked up vertically for flight.

On Aug. 26, 1967, that 363-foot-tall Saturn V rocket − which weighed 18-million pounds − crawled out of the VAB at approximately one mile per hour. It's destination: the new launch pad known as 39A. Still in use today, Pad 39A was constructed specifically for this huge moon rocket.

It wasn't until Nov. 9 that same year that the Saturn V blasted off into the Florida sky, propelled by 7.5 million pounds of thrust. This uncrewed Apollo 4 mission led the way for the rest of the Apollo missions, including the historic Apollo 11 moon landing.

Von Braun's connection to the VAB

The man behind the Saturn V was no other than the famed German scientist Wernher von Braun. Having worked on the V-2 ballistic rocket during WWII in Germany, the German's experience was valuable not only to the U.S. military but the ambitions of the space program.

Von Braun and other German scientists underneath his command surrendered to U.S. forces during a post-war event known as operation Paperclip − joining forces and relocating to the U.S. to assist in rocket efforts.

Having mostly worked from Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, Von Braun did have an office in Florida. It was located within Hangar C — the oldest missile assembly hanger at Cape Canaveral — which is now a museum on Space Force grounds.

Kline said that Von Braun made an appearance at the VAB from time to time. "He came to see the flight hardware," said Kline. But, unfortunately, photos of Von Braun at the VAB have been lost, she said.

"He was here. And you kind of think about it, the elevator cars themselves are original to the building, and you think about the past and think 'all those people have stood where I'm standing right now'," said Kline.

What was originally planned for the VAB

Although the country only saw the Saturn V carry crews to the moon until 1972, there had been a broader vision.

Kline said that Von Braun originally envisioned an even larger VAB.

"They originally planned to eventually add two more high bays out to the north. So there would have been six high bays out there. But, the Apollo program didn't get that far. It didn't get that high of a flight rate, so they stuck to the board," said Kline.

"Von Braun did not just design the Saturn V for the first few missions to the Moon.  He built it to support the development of significant Earth-orbit infrastructure, and lunar-orbit infrastructure, and lunar bases," Muncy added.

"My point here is that the VAB was designed to support frequent flights of Saturn V-class vehicles.  NASA is currently using it to fly one SLS rocket every few years. Von Braun’s and (original KSC director Kurt) Debus’ vision extended beyond Apollo 11 to regular flights of astronauts to orbit, to the Moon, and then beyond. They build the VAB to support a LOT of launches," he said.

That grand vision never materialized. Muncy said the closest thing in both the grandness of the purpose and the tempo on the Space Coast is SpaceX's plans for Launch Pad 39A.

SpaceX plans to bring its gigantic Starship vehicle, which is currently being tested in Boca Chica, Texas, to the Kennedy Space Center pad in the coming years. A launch tower specifically for Starship already stands on site as SpaceX has been contracted by NASA to ferry astronauts down to the lunar surface during Artemis III. While the Orion spacecraft orbits the moon, the Starship lander will bring astronauts down to the surface.

SpaceX's Starship is being designed to have the capability to refuel in space, giving it the power to travel further distances than traditional spacecraft.

However, Starship's arrival depends on completion of testing, as well as Federal Aviation Administration and Space Force environmental impact studies.

Muncy also cited SpaceX's Starbase in Texas, and Blue Origin's plans for the New Glenn at Launch Complex 36 on the Space Coast as closer examples to the original vision that gave rise to the VAB.

The VAB during Space Shuttle days

With the Saturn V having been constructed inside the bays of the VAB, NASA had to get creative during the Space Shuttle program when it came to bringing the reusable shuttle into a vertical launch position − and attaching the rocket boosters.

"We'd bring the mobile launch platform for the shuttle into the high bays; they'd stack the boosters on, and then put the external tank on there, and then stack the shuttle on," said Kline.

Dan McKune worked on it firsthand as a crane operator.

"Once they lifted (the shuttle) up off the shuttle transporter, they back that out of the way, and then the crane crew would take over."

"One person would direct the two cranes holding the shuttle, and direct the cranes to both start up until you got to the right height. Then you tell them to stop, and then you'd tell one crane to start up − and as one crane started up, the other crane would stay motionless," said McKune.

McKune said as the first crane pulled the shuttle up by its nose, the second crane would swing toward it pushing the shuttle into a vertical position.

It was a creative work around to upright the shuttle for launch − as the high bays had been designed for a very different rocket and spacecraft.

What is the NASA VAB used for today?

With the Artemis program expected to take off in late 2025, the VAB has been brought back into service in support of another massive rocket.

NASA's SLS consists of the Orion spacecraft atop of the 322-foot-tall SLS rocket.

While not quite as tall as the Saturn V, it is significantly more powerful. Upon launch, the SLS rocket gives off 8.8 million pounds of thrust. This is 15 percent more than the Saturn V which took the Apollo crews to the moon.

"Right now, going on in the VAB is we're doing building reinforcement. When a lot of the platforms were taken out from the shuttle program, we installed platforms for the SLS program. It changed the configuration of the VAB a little bit, so we're reinforcing the VAB to be able to handle the extra loads of those platforms, but then also to withstand hurricanes," said Kline.

Kline said that the VAB has building reinforcements that help it sustain pounding hurricane winds. Crews also do routine inspections of the siding, making sure everything is securely attached.

How to see the Kennedy Space Center VAB

As the VAB sits on NASA government property, the closest the public can get to this famed structure is through the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex bus tour. The tour takes visitors out to the Saturn V Apollo Center, and drives past the massive VAB rocket garage on the way. This gives visitors a close up view of just how large this building truly is.

Of course, the VAB is also visible in the distance from many spots in central and northern Brevard.

To put its sheer size in perspective, alongside the famous NASA logo painted on the building's side is a painted American flag. That painted flag measures 110-feet-wide by 206-feet-tall. This makes the flag equivalent to a towering 20-story building.

Brooke Edwards is a Space Reporter for Florida Today. Contact her at bedwards@floridatoday.com or on X: @brookeofstars.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: To the moon and back: Story of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building