Quote Originally Posted by skepticalbip View Post
True, from the videos I've seen just lift-off from Earth would put the payload through a lot of stress... sorta like putting an instrument on the end of a stick and shaking it back and forth as hard as you can.
I used to launch science experiments on suborbital rockets and you’d be amazed that coming back into the atmosphere put more stresses on it than launch.

On the way up speed is increasing while pressure is decreasing. On the way down they’re both increasing. The ride up is at high g, indeed, but relatively smooth.