June 7, 2008: Flying Bricks

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Stress Puppy

Telephoto lens?

Probably, but not terribly long, there is not so much compression of the image as you'd expect w/ a telephoto.

Boat?

[xoxoxoBruce]

That could be, if the pads are those circles out near the open water.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That could be, if the pads are those circles out near the open water.

Been there, done that, still awestruck.

It's a long ways away, people. To give you some sense of scale, that little box of a building in the center of the frame is the VAB. It's big. Really big.

Originally Posted by wikipedia

Size

The VAB is 525 feet (160.02 m) tall, 716 feet (218.24 m) long and 518 feet (157.89 m) wide. It covers 8 acres (32,374.85 m²), and encloses 129,428,000 cubic feet (3,664,992.82 cubic metres) of space.[1]

One indicator of the building's scale is that each of the stars on the American flag painted on the building is 6 feet (1.83 m) across, the blue field is the size of a regulation basketball court, and the stripes are as wide as a standard road lane. The flag is 209 feet (63.70 m) high, and 110 feet (33.53 m) wide, and was added in 1976 as part of United States Bicentennial celebrations, along with the star logo of the anniversary, later replaced by the NASA logo in 1998. The interior volume of the building is so vast, NASA employees have reported it has its own weather, "NASA employees report that rain clouds form below the ceiling on very humid days."[3]

The building implements four large air machines (four cylindrical structures west of the building) to keep moisture under control.