One of the largest enclosed structures in the world, volumetrically, the Vehicle Assembly Building, looked like a regular warehouse. About three miles away it seemed large, fairly large, and about three blocks distant. A mile away one it began to take scale, when the vehicles beneath it were just visible. And then the actual size of the flag painted on its side became evident. And then Jason told us that the doors are over 400 feet high. The doors.
I've never been dizzy looking up before.
The Vehicle Assembly Building is where spacecraft are, well, assembled. Fifty-two open floors allow access to every level of an orbiter or rocket. The craft are built on platforms bolted to pillars; when the hour comes, the doors open, crawlers slide under the platforms, the pillars are removed and the spacecraft is slowly, slowly driven to its launch pad. The crawler driver looks down, only, following a laser line on a near frictionless gravel path (sparks bad). The journey from the Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad can take up to eight hours. And it's right over there.
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