Kennedy Space Center opens building for tours

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.?? Heads up, space fans.

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Visitors to NASA's Kennedy Space Center now have the opportunity to see inside the colossal Vehicle Assembly Building, off-limits throughout the 30-year shuttle program.

Public bus tours last stopped at the VAB in 1978. They're resuming Nov. 1. The cost is an extra $25 per adult and $19 per child ? on top of the usual admission charge.

The 525-foot-tall VAB was built to hold the Saturn V rocket that sent men to the moon in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It's where every space shuttle was attached to its external fuel tank and booster rockets, before flight.

Atlantis closed out the shuttle program in July, with the 135th mission.

NASA officials stress that the VAB tour stop is temporary ? it will cease when the VAB is used once again to stack rockets for launch. The space agency is aiming to send astronauts to an asteroid and Mars in the decades ahead.

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45106884/ns/travel-destination_travel/

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