Attaching payloads & building rockets In real life?

[Cloakedwand72]

How do they actually assemble the rocket then attach the satellite/station or moon base module inside the fairings? Also how do they make multi stages like the Soyuz & Falcon heavy & The delta heavy> Any good documentaries on this subject? In KSP when you build the rover or space base it'd say attach payload hear on the Fairings. And any whom how would they do that if the payload had a rocket engine like the old lunar lander did? Would they use a berthing module for a space station?

Edited November 14, 2018 by Cloakedwand72

[XB-70A]

Personally, I loved the short (and rare) documentaries made some years ago in Samara, the home of the legendary Semiorka. It's pretty uncommon for them to share a lot about that site, however:

There are some good sights in this one.

 

 

Really good too, the best starting around 12:00.

 

 

Others are also available... but not in English:

That one is the best (to me), a lot to see there (and you can jump the interviews which, even if you could understand them, are not essentials).

 

 

Good sights here too.

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by XB-70A

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Typically, the rockets themselves are built more like a plane: conveniently sized, specialized, pieces are bolted or welded together. However, placing the payload on top of the rocket and inside the fairing (or sometimes even connecting the stages) is called "integration."

This is what the lower half of the Atlas V 5-meter fairing and centaur upper stage being vertically (rocket points up, as compared to horizontal) integrated looks like:

However, frequently the payload is "encapsulated" in the fairing in a clean room, then integrated with the rest of the rocket, to prevent contamination. This is the vertical integration of the NROL-52 payload encapsulated in the Atlas V 4-meter fairing: