Nasa

[ancona]

We just got a call from a prime contractor we bid some work to, and it appears that we're going to be performing about 95% of the work in the flame trench at LC-39. This is a sweet pile of backlog work for us! We're also currently attending a pre-bid job walk inside the VAB at KSC. For the uninitiated, this is the largest single story structure on the planet. It has a five and a half acre footprint, and is so big that there are multiple three to four hundred foot towers inside housing operations. As a matter of fact, it actually has it's own weather inside. Clouds form starting at the four hundred foot level when conditions are right. If we can get competitive enough, that project alone would cover our overhead through next April. We'll see.

 

[bushi]

...that is cool I've heard about it, I think (the internal weather patterns stroke a chord with my brilliant but faulty memory) - that's the one they were using for Saturns?

...Unlike a block full of people, with a footprint of roughly 2.7 acres, 11 storey high, 1792 "apartments", ~6000 inhabitants (!!!!) - I used to share accommodation in there, when in college, back in good old days . Totally uncool . Three bus stops along it you were going, from one end to another - over 800m long.
http://goo.gl/maps/YMyq4
(can you spot it in the picture above )

...if you could get a contract to demolish that one, ancona, I will chip in from my own pocket

 

[ancona]

Bushi,
Yes, the Saturn V rocket was assembled in the VAB as was the Shuttle. I've been in there many times with a "bird on the hook" and got to see the shuttle hanging there completely assembled with live boosters and mated to the external tank. I have also walked beside it as it was rolling out to the pad. Seeing this stuff on TV simply does not do justice to the absolute scale of these things. Everything out here is larger than life, and most things are uniqe to this particular program, and are the only ones that exist.