How do aerospace engineers perform quality assurance for rockets?
In: Engineering
They test samples
Almost all liquid fueled engines are test fired on a test stand before being integrated into the big rocket. This way you know that all the plumbing and pumps in the engine are good to go.
The tank needs to be pressure tested, generally this would be done on early samples to confirm what the simulations said. This would be an early design validation bit for the most part and not redone on every new tank once you’ve confirmed it works.
They also have the ability to abort right at the beginning if something is wrong.
The liquid fueled engines of the rocket generally start 1-3 seconds before launch and the rocket is held down by big clamps. If any of the engines don’t seem quite right (not enough thrust, too much thrust, too hot, etc) then they’ll cut the engines and abort the launch. There’s no way to abort a solid rocket motor so once those boosters start up its going and there’s nothing you can do.
On the upside, solid rocket motors are dumb simple so a reliable manufacturing process pretty well avoids issues for them which is why the military uses them so often as they can sit around for years and then just GO with minimal prep work
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