1 00:00:00,900 --> 00:00:07,580 You know I feel like I'm afraid I'm gonna fall down or something, it is simply just enormous. 2 00:00:14,660 --> 00:00:18,660 If you're afraid of heights, the VAB may not be the best place for you to work. 3 00:00:18,660 --> 00:00:23,119 With us today is Rebecca Baturn, a VAB project engineer, who's gonna tell us a little bit 4 00:00:23,119 --> 00:00:24,130 more about the VAB. 5 00:00:24,130 --> 00:00:25,700 Rebecca, how are you doing today? 6 00:00:25,700 --> 00:00:26,500 I'm good, how are you? 7 00:00:26,500 --> 00:00:27,140 Fantastic. 8 00:00:27,260 --> 00:00:30,820 Thank you so much for being with us here today to tell us a little bit more about the VAB. 9 00:00:30,820 --> 00:00:34,920 This building was built in 1965 to support the Apollo programs, since then we've had 10 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:39,210 the Apollo, Shuttle and not the SLS program here in the building and we're in the process 11 00:00:39,210 --> 00:00:42,559 of modernizing High Bay 3 to support the SLS program. 12 00:00:42,559 --> 00:00:45,720 High Bay 3, so I take it there's multiple High Bays in this building? 13 00:00:45,720 --> 00:00:46,720 There are, there are 4 High Bays. 14 00:00:46,720 --> 00:00:50,440 There all pretty much identical, just depending on what program they support they may have 15 00:00:50,440 --> 00:00:52,990 different platforms or different services inside the High Bay. 16 00:00:52,990 --> 00:00:57,000 So this building, the people that designed it back in 60's had amazing forethought to 17 00:00:57,000 --> 00:00:59,489 design a building like this that we can use long into the future. 18 00:00:59,489 --> 00:01:03,120 So if you go up on the roof there's actually these steel columns you see there not capped 19 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:06,630 off, so we can theoretically make these High Bays taller if we so wished. 20 00:01:06,630 --> 00:01:09,880 The foundation is poured out beyond the north side of the building so we can build two additional 21 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:11,520 High Bays if we wanted to. 22 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:13,720 So we definitely have a lot of options here within the VAB. 23 00:01:13,720 --> 00:01:18,860 I don't think I can imagine this building being any taller, right now 350 feet is already 24 00:01:18,860 --> 00:01:24,560 high for me, so this big building the transfer aisle itself is large, how do you get the 25 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:28,420 pieces of the rocket from one section to the other? 26 00:01:28,420 --> 00:01:30,310 So we have five cranes inside this building. 27 00:01:30,310 --> 00:01:35,200 One runs along the transfer aisle at the 16th floor level, that's our 175 ton crane, then 28 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:37,250 we have two cranes that run in each set of High Bays. 29 00:01:37,250 --> 00:01:42,460 So in this High Bay you can see the 250 ton crane and then the 325 ton crane. 30 00:01:42,460 --> 00:01:46,440 325 tons, so can that crane pick up the shuttle by itself? 31 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:47,420 It can. 32 00:01:47,420 --> 00:01:51,380 So for the Shuttle operations it came in horizontally, so we'd actually use two cranes to transit 33 00:01:51,380 --> 00:01:53,400 it to vertical and then lift it up and over into the High Bay. 34 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:58,020 For, I believe, for the SLS operations it will just be a single crane. 35 00:01:58,020 --> 00:02:00,420 So the crane operator has to look straight down. 36 00:02:00,420 --> 00:02:01,420 Yes. 37 00:02:01,420 --> 00:02:02,420 When they're operating this crane. 38 00:02:02,420 --> 00:02:05,710 Yes, so you can see in the corner there is a little operator's cabin, that's where he 39 00:02:05,710 --> 00:02:08,310 or she would sit and they would be operating the crane from up there. 40 00:02:08,310 --> 00:02:10,600 I don't think that that's a job that I would want. 41 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:11,670 Wow, that it is really high. 42 00:02:11,670 --> 00:02:13,760 You can't be faint of heart for that job. 43 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:14,760 Yeah. 44 00:02:14,760 --> 00:02:16,470 So exactly how tall is this building? 45 00:02:16,470 --> 00:02:18,530 The building is 525 feet tall. 46 00:02:18,530 --> 00:02:22,830 Right now we're standing inside the Low Bay, and if you look up beyond the 175 ton crane 47 00:02:22,830 --> 00:02:25,900 here, you can see up into the High Bay and that's where our four High Bays are. 48 00:02:25,900 --> 00:02:27,700 And how wide is it? 49 00:02:27,700 --> 00:02:28,840 It's 518 feet wide. 50 00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:31,670 518 feet wide that is a massive building. 51 00:02:31,670 --> 00:02:37,280 Now standing here, it feels, it almost feels like it's a wind tunnel, because the air flows through. 52 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:39,140 Is that by design? 53 00:02:39,140 --> 00:02:42,250 So we don't have air conditioning inside this building so really the only way we can regulate 54 00:02:42,250 --> 00:02:44,170 the temperature in here is to open and close the doors. 55 00:02:44,170 --> 00:02:48,280 So in the High Bays you will see we have those large doors that roll up, taking about 45 minutes 56 00:02:48,280 --> 00:02:52,580 to fully open, and we will open those in certain configurations to allow like a chimney effect to 57 00:02:52,580 --> 00:02:53,600 keep the High Bays cool. 58 00:02:53,600 --> 00:02:56,510 Why does it take 45 minutes to open up those doors? 59 00:02:56,510 --> 00:02:57,510 Because they're so massive. 60 00:02:57,510 --> 00:03:00,890 So each section can be controlled individually, so you can raise or lower all the door or 61 00:03:00,890 --> 00:03:03,300 each individual section one at a time. 62 00:03:03,300 --> 00:03:06,440 So, relatively speaking, how big is that flag on the building? 63 00:03:06,440 --> 00:03:10,290 It's about 209 feet tall by 110 feet wide. 64 00:03:10,290 --> 00:03:11,480 And the stars? 65 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:13,990 The stars are 6 feet across and 9 feet wide. 66 00:03:13,990 --> 00:03:16,790 And right now we're standing on a mock up of what the pieces of the flag look like. 67 00:03:16,790 --> 00:03:20,590 So if you look down you can see the size of the stars and the size of the stripes and 68 00:03:20,590 --> 00:03:23,480 you could probably drive a truck through the size of the stripes that are on the side of 69 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:24,620 the building. 70 00:03:24,620 --> 00:03:26,850 From down here it doesn't look like it's that large. 71 00:03:26,850 --> 00:03:28,640 It certainly does not look like it. 72 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:32,569 Well, Rebecca, thanks so much for being out here with us and telling us a little bit more 73 00:03:32,569 --> 00:03:33,850 about the VAB. 74 00:03:33,850 --> 00:03:37,560 We definitely appreciate all the great work that you and your team are doing.