Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcdchg!illusion!marcus
From: marcus@illusion.UUCP (Marcus Hall)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Acronyms
Message-ID: <399@illusion.UUCP>
Date: 2 Aug 89 12:49:45 GMT
References: <7364@bunny.GTE.COM> <1638@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu>
Reply-To: marcus@illusion.UUCP (Marcus Hall)
Organization: Magic Numbers Software, Bloomingdale, IL
Lines: 25

In article <1638@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu> mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell) writes:
>From article <7364@bunny.GTE.COM>, by s914@GTE.COM (Lawrence Bilker):
>>  I always thought VAB meant Vehicle Assembly Building (like OV)
>
>Whoops! I goofed. You are, of course, absolutely correct. My mind
>must have been out to lunch; I was probably getting confused with
>VPF (Vertical Processing Facility) which is something else again
>(STS payloads? Titan assembly? can't remember and dont want to
>risk another goof...)
>
>-Jonathan


Whoops! You didn't really goof!  The *original* meaning of VAB was "Vertical
Assembly Building" and was later changed to "Vehicle...".  There was a lot
of questioning how the big Saturns should be built and transported to the
pad.  One option was to assemble the boosters on their side (like the Russians
do) and erect it on the pad.  The method that won out was to assemble it
vertically and then transport it to the pad.  (There were also quite a few
methods of transporting the booster to the pad that were studied.)

So, anyway, you were actually correct both times, but the *current* meaning
is Vehicle Assembly Building.

marcus hall