 NASA's iconic Vehicle Assembly building was designed so that the Saturn V rocket could be assembled upright inside a structure. It's so big that it actually casts a visible shadow from orbit. So let's dig into a little bit of its history today on Vintage Space. The first ever rocket to launch from Cape Canaveral was a two-stage V2 bumper rocket launched on July 31st of 1950. Launches had moved to Cape Canaveral because they were quickly getting too big to launch from the White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico, and they were about to get a lot bigger. After Candy pledged the nation to a manned landing on the moon by the end of the decade, it was clear that NASA was going to need a much bigger rocket to get men not only off the planet, but all the way to the moon. And so, that big rocket would need a place to launch, and that meant extending the site at Cape Canaveral. To extend the site at Canaveral, NASA first purchased 80,000 acres of land on Merritt Island. Then it awarded contracts to build the rocket. The contract for the first stage went to Boeing, the contract for the second stage went to North American Aviation, and the contract for the third stage to Douglas Aircraft. The spacecraft were also awarded to different contractors. North American Aviation also built the command and service modules, and Grumman built the lunar modules. But with all the pieces of the rocket and the spacecraft being built at different facilities around the country, they would have to be brought together at Cape Canaveral and tested and mated before they could launch to the moon. That meant NASA needed a vehicle assembly building. Design of the vehicle assembly building fell to four New York-based firms collectively known as ERSAM. The architects had to think through some pretty difficult problems, like acoustic pressure. Though three miles from the launch pad, the acoustic pressure of a launching Saturn V is about 145 decibels, enough to damage the building's skin. The building's shape was another problem. If it was a straight rectangle, it could turn into a box kite in a heavy wind, say a typical Florida hurricane. The solution was to use a pile foundation, an array of cross-bracing beams, and insulated aluminum panels fastened to steel girders. The inside of the building was designed such that pieces of the rocket were received into a low bay and moved into a checkout cell. Checked components were then moved into the high bay for stacking and integration. Four high bay doors, each 456 feet tall, opened to let the rocket. On top of its mobile launch platform began its transfer onto the launch pad. Construction began with dredging and clearing the land. Beginning on August 2nd of 1963, 4,000 piles totaling 1.4 million cubic feet of concrete were driven into the ground. The building was slowly erected from there, comprising some 45 metric tons of structural steel. On April 14th of 1965, the last structural element of the VAB was installed. It's a beam, painted white, and signed by all of the NASA and Corps of Engineers employees and construction workers who had of hand in building the VAB. The total price tag at the end of the day, $117 million. It is impossible to describe just how big the VAB is. You really kind of have to see it to get a sense of it. When you're standing inside the building looking up, it's just unfathomably large. And the flag on the side of the building, a bus could fit inside each of the stripes on the American flag. If you ever have a chance to see it at Cape Kennedy, definitely do it. It is unbelievable. It's just massive. So have you ever visited the VAB, or do you have any interesting stories you've heard about its construction? Let me know in the comments below. And don't forget to follow me on Twitter as AST Vintage Space for all kinds of vintage space content every day of the week. And with new episodes going up every Tuesday and Friday, be sure to subscribe right here so you never miss an episode.