BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Florida’s no stranger to strange and awe-inspiring locales, but it turns out that the Sunshine State also gets points for size.
According to CNET’s list of the biggest buildings in the world, NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at the Kennedy Space Center comes in at No. 7.
In total, the building is 525 feet tall and 518 feet wide, spanning around 8 acres on its own, NASA reports. Of course, the VAB would have to be pretty large to accommodate the spacecraft inside.
“The structure was completed in 1966 for the assembly of the Apollo/Saturn V moon rocket, the largest rocket made by humans,” a release by the space agency reads. “The building was constructed 3.5 miles from Launch Pad 39A and 4.2 miles from Launch Pad 39B. A pair of crawler-transporters, some of the largest machines ever to move on land, were used to carry the completed rockets to the pad.”
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Those dimensions make the VAB the largest building by volume in Florida, and the third-largest nationwide behind the Boeing Composite Wing Center (No. 6) and the Boeing Everett Factory (No. 1) in Washington.
But the building’s size alone isn’t the only huge thing about it; NASA officials state that it’s also home to the largest American flag, which is painted on the building’s side and stretches roughly 23,000 square feet.
A 12,300-square-foot NASA logo is also painted on the side of the building. Both the logo and the flag were actually repainted as part of the building’s refurbishment nearly two decades ago.
NASA has announced future plans to modernize much of the communications, power and vehicle access resources, some of which have been used since the building first opened in 1965.
But for now, the building continues to help NASA assemble rockets for the agency’s space missions.
In the meantime, the rest of CNET’s list is as follows:
| Rank | Building | Location | Volume (Gallons) | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boeing Everett Factory | Everett, Washington | 3.5 billion | Manufactures Boeing airplanes |
| 2 | Great Mosque of Mecca | Saudi Arabia | 2.1 billion | Culturally significant mosque |
| 3 | Jean-Luc Lagardère Plant | France | 1.5 billion | Assembly hall for Airbus A380 |
| 4 | Aerium | Germany | 1.4 billion | Former airship hangar, now used as the Tropical Islands Resort |
| 5 | Meyer Werft Dockhalle 2 | Germany | 1.2 billion | Shipbuilding yard |
| 6 | Boeing Composite Wing Center | Everett, Washington | 977.4 million | Assembly site for 777X jetliner wings |
| 7 | NASA Vehicle Assembly Building | Kennedy Space Center, Florida | 966.9 million | Assembles and stores spacecraft |
| 8 | The O2 | United Kingdom | 737 million | Entertainment venue |
| 9 | Tesco Ireland Distribution Centre | Ireland | 409.5 million | Facility for grocery store brand Tesco |
| 10 | Target Import Warehouse | Savannah, Georgia | 396.3 million | Handles merchandise for southeastern Target stores |
| 11 | Austal USA Module Manufacturing Facility | Mobile, Alabama | 360.6 million | Builds ships for the Navy |
| 12 | Hannover Fairground, Halls 3-9 | Germany | 303.8 million | Former aircraft hangar, now used as an exhibition ground |
| 13 | National Exhibition Centre, Halls 1-5 | United Kingdom | 301.2 million | Hosts events like the Crufts Dog Show |
| 14 | 2800 Polar Way | Richland, Washington | 271.8 million | Refrigerated warehouse |
| 15 | Hangar One | Mountain View, California | 264.2 million | Former naval hangar, now leased by Planetary Ventures |
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