Picture of the day - June 29, 2007

Space Shuttle Discovery exiting NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building

Photo courtesy of NASA. America's space shuttles are massive vehicles, and getting one ready to blast off from the launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center is no small undertaking. To make the job as easy and safe as possible, the assembly crew puts all the "pieces" together and performs much of the required testing inside the cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building. Today's picture shows the space shuttle Discovery beginning her exit from the VAB in preparation for last July's mission STS-121. NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building is quite interesting in its own right. Covering eight acres and rising 525 feet into the air, the VAB is the largest single story building in the world. It was originally built to facilitate the assembly of the Apollo/Saturn class of rocket-powered space vehicle systems, but NASA later modified it in order to support the new space shuttle fleet. To gain a little perspective on the size of a space shuttle and the VAB, just take a look at the people walking around the base of the Discovery spacecraft in the first picture. Just image how it would feel to stand in the viewing gallery as you watch a vehicle of that size blast off from the launch pad!   Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!            Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"