The Complete Book of Spaceflight: From Apollo 1 to Zero Gravity

Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB)
A large facility where the Space Shuttle Orbiter is joined
to the Solid Rocket Boosters and the External Tank, and
where, in the 1960s and 1970s, Saturn V components
were assembled. The 52-story VAB occupies a ground
area of 3.2 hectares (8 acres) and has an internal volume
of 3,624,000 cubic meters. Designed to withstand winds
of 200 km/hr, it has a foundation that rests on more than
4,200 steel pilings, each 40 cm in diameter, that goes to a
depth of 49 m through bedrock. From the VAB, the Shuttle
is moved to its launch pad by a crawler/transporter.
Vela
A series of spacecraft designed to monitor worldwide
compliance with the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty (“vela”
is Spanish for “watchman”). The Vela satellites, carrying
X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutron detectors, were launched
in pairs into high altitude orbits to detect possible
nuclear explosions on Earth and in space, out to the distance
of Venus or Mars. Interestingly, the gamma-ray
detectors onboard the early Velas picked up the first signs
of an important astrophysical phenomenon—gamma-ray
bursters—but this information was only declassified
about two decades after the military became aware of it.
The project was directed by the Advanced Research Projects
Agency of the Department of Defense; the U.S. Air
Force Space and Missile Systems organization was
responsible for the development of the spacecraft. The
first three pairs of satellites were so successful, each operating
for at least 5 years, that a planned acquisition of a
fourth and fifth set of pairs was cancelled. Instead, TRW
was awarded a further contract in March 1965, for an
Advanced Vela spacecraft series (see Vela, Advanced).
(See table, “Vela Series.”)
Launch
Vehicle: Atlas IIIA-Agena D
Site: Cape Canaveral
Size: 1.4 × 1.4 m
Vela Series
velocity 463
Vela, Advanced
Like its predecessor, Vela, the Advanced Vela series of
spacecraft was designed to monitor worldwide compliance
with the 1963 nuclear test ban treaty; however, it
could also detect atmospheric nuclear detonation. Additionally,
the Advanced Vela monitored solar activity
(providing radiation warnings for manned missions), terrestrial
lightning activity, and celestial X-ray and gammaray
radiation. All six spacecraft operated for more than 10
years—the last pair, Vela 11 and Vela 12, continuing to
function well into the 1980s. Their nuclear detection role
was taken over by IMEWS in the 1970s. Vela was touted
as the longest continuously operating space system in
1985, when the Air Force shut down the last three craft.
(See table, “Advanced Vela Series.”)
Advanced Vela Series
Spacecraft Launch Date
Vela 7 Apr. 28, 1967
Vela 8 Apr. 28, 1967
Vela 9 May 23, 1969
Vela 10 May 23, 1969
Vela 11 Apr. 8, 1970
Vela 12 Apr. 8, 1970
Vela, Rodolfo Neri (1952–)
The first Mexican in space. Vela, a teacher and a designer of
satellites at the National Institute of Electrical Research in
Mexico City, flew as a payload specialist aboard Space
Shuttle mission STS-61B in November–December 1985
with responsibility for deploying the Mexican Morelos B
satellite. As part of the food manifest he requested tortillas.
velocity
A vector quantity specifying both the speed and the
direction of movement of an object in a given frame of
reference.
Spacecraft Launch Date Orbit Mass (kg)
Vela 1 Oct. 16, 1963 101,925 × 116,582 km × 37.8° 220
Vela 2 Oct. 16, 1963 101,081 × 116,582 km × 38.7° 220
Vela 3 Jul. 17, 1964 102,500 × 104,101 km × 39.1° 220
Vela 4 Jul. 17, 1964 92,103 × 114,000 km × 40.8° 220
Vela 5 Jul. 20, 1965 106,367 × 115,839 km × 35.2° 235
Vela 6 Jul. 20, 1965 101,715 × 121,281 km × 34.2° 235