TEST REQUIREMENTS FOR LAUNCH, UPPER-STAGE AND SPACE VEHICLES SMC Standard SMC-S-016 This Standard establishes the environmental and structural ground testing requirements for launch vehicles, upper-stage vehicles, space vehicles, and their subsystems and units. In addition, a uniform set of definitions of related terms is established. The tests discussed herein are categorized and defined as follows: a. Development tests. Tests conducted on representative articles to characterize engineering parameters, gather data and validate the design approach. b. Qualification tests. Tests conducted to demonstrate satisfaction of design requirements including margin and product robustness for designs that have no demonstrated history. A full qualification validates the planned acceptance program, in-process stress screens, and retest environmental stresses resulting from failure and rework. Qualification hardware that is selected for use as flight hardware shall be evaluated and refurbished as necessary to show that the integrity of the hardware is preserved and that adequate margin remains to survive the rigors of launch and provide useful life on orbit. c. Protoqualification tests. Tests conducted to demonstrate satisfaction of design requirements using reduced amplitude and duration margins. This type of test is generally selected for designs that have limited production where test units will be used for flight. The test program is supplemented with analyses as well as development and other tests to demonstrate margin and life. Protoqualification tests shall validate the planned acceptance program. d. Acceptance tests. Vehicle, subsystem, and unit tests conducted to demonstrate that flight hardware is free of workmanship defects, meets specified performance requirements, and is acceptable for delivery. e. Prelaunch validation tests. Prelaunch validation tests are conducted at the lau