Design a rocket that could be built in place inside one of the four bays of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center, which is 525 ft (160 m) tall. Utilize additive manufacturing (aka 3D printing) where possible, considering which materials might be able to be used and which ones may have to be brought in already manufactured.

The Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is one of the largest buildings by volume in the world. It was built in the 1960s for the Saturn V (aka Moon rocket), was used to assembly the Space Shuttle together prior to launch, and will be used to process the upcoming Space Launch System (SLS). The vehicles were built in factories across the United States and then transported to KSC. The vehicles were assembled on the mobile launch platform (MLP) within the high bays and then a crawler drove underneath the platform to "pick them up" and take them to the launch pad.

The Saturn V, measuring 363 ft (111 m) and SLS in cargo configuration at 383 ft ( 117 m) will be NASA's tallest rockets, but they do not reach the full height of the 4 high bays. With the MPL and crawler heights beneath, these rockets are near, but not at, the limits of height of the facility.

With additive and other manufacturing technologies advancing, rocket engines are incorporating elements like 3D printed parts. Innovations can start to be considered in how to build a rocket near the launch pad with transport from its "factory" directly to the launch pad.

• the space that the equipment needs to move around in developing the rocket
• the rocket exiting the bay to go to the launch pad (the doors only open to 456 ft high)
• how the rocket will be transported to the launch pad
• the people that will be present throughout the processing and will need access to work on the vehicle or inspect it
• which materials can be 3D printed versus which ones will need to be manufactured elsewhere and incorporated into the rocket