Vehicle Assembly Building

The wreckage of Space Shuttle Columbia sits in a restricted room on the 16^th floor.

One of the buildings I use to work in. Admittedly it’s a site to see.
There is an elevator that goes fast enough that when you jump as the elevator starts there is a brief moment of weightlessness.
There are stairs that you can run up and clock your time at the tip of the VAB.
So many floors are abandoned that alot if the space is empty or storage. Rumored had it that someone actually lived in the VAB and wasn’t caught till a fire inspection.
Plus it’s really cool to see how big and tall the building is and that it once housed a vehicle just as tall.
Random fact… the building can also be used as an emergency weather building because of the depth of the foundation of the VAB.

I’ve been lucky enough to visit the VAB twice, both during NASA tweetup/​social events. On my first visit the Endeavour was being decommissioned and on my recent visit, we got to see some of the new work they’re doing to accommodate the new SLS vehicles. The building itself is so impressive and it’s awesome to get to speak with employees who work inside it every day.

This is such an incredible building– and to think it was built in the 60’s! To say it is HUGE simply does not do it justice. The only way to truly appreciate this building is to see it in the flesh. The docents inside tell you fact and figures, but the best part are their stories of what it was like when they worked there.
I was here in 1976, and it has been closed to the public since 1979. It is open for a limited time, so I suggest that if you have never been, you go and see history that will soon be unavailable as soon as the rocket industry ramps back up.

I saw this on the «up close» tour and it was seriously impressive. Technically a «one-​story building» but 520+ feet tall and several construction bays with very tall doors.