The sound of a rocket launch can damage a craft. So something must be done to protect it. The engineers at the Large European Acoustic Facility recreated the noise of a launch to make sure satellites can survive it. And oh by the way, no human can survive the sound.

A rocket launch is one of the loudest noises ever created by man. It falls only 40 decibels short of a 1-ton TNT bomb. It's safe to say you'll be permanently deaf from that. The noise was carefully recreated and controlled in a lab at the facility.

LEAF was built in 1989 at the ESA's main research and development center in the Netherlands. The 900 suqare foot, mint colored room stands 50 feet tall, and it is large enough to hang pieces of rockets and satellites for testing.

There are gigantic sound horns that produce an upward of 154 decibels. Better than any Bang & Olufsen product you've come across for sure.

When the engineers test the blaring, they take readings on the vibration stress of the internal accelerometers of the craft. It is then hooked up to a monitoring system through ropes of wires.



 [ESA]