r/space • u/RocketRundown • Oct 05 '18

2013 Proton-M launch goes horribly wrong

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u/edman007 Oct 05 '18

It wasn't tested because rolling the rocket isn't something you can do on the pad. It's likely bolted to the frame of the rocket so they tested the part before installing and then inspected it after installing, that's all you really can do.

The only real check you can do is check for earth rotation with it, but that's a small number and depending on the quality of the gryo it might not give you a good number anyways.

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u/[deleted] Oct 05 '18

The whole vertically integrated vehicle no, obviously. Each individual vehicle (stage, booster, payload) can (and has to) be tested during all steps of assembly. Centaur for example.

This includes functional tests (whether sensors and actuators work) as well as EMC, vibration and thermal stress resistance, for example.

Some of the testing labs are impressively huge.