Dominic Hart / Ames / NASA
Patrick Shea inspects a 1.3 percent model of the SLS in a wind tunnel at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, in 2016. The tests were designed to determine the behavior of a powerful rocket as it climbs and accelerates through the sound barrier after launch. To also test the new optical measurement method, Ames engineers coated the SLS structure with an unstable pressure-resistant paint, which, under light, brightens or brightens depending on the air pressure acting on different areas of the rocket.
