That's why they also glued them in epoxy. If you don't want you electronics to move (and thus break connections), put them tight in epoxy. And I mean completely glued in. No air left. This is as valid for modern solder joints as well as welded.
Suppose you had an old radio made with all welded construction. I wonder if service would be easier or harder? There is no un-welding (so you'd have to cut the broken component out), but making the new weld is faster than soldering.
Sure, but that is inside the components. This is on the outside, after the components themselves have been manufactured.
> Also wire welding is very common (it's the main technique) in automobile wiring harnesses.
That may be so today but it certainly wasn't in the 1960's.
And even today your typical automotive boars is just soldered. Makes me wonder whether satellites and current space and possibly aircraft circuitry is still manufactured like this.
So, at least in this case solder was used on a satellite.
19:50 in this video shows one in use in making a vacuum tube:
> The AGC that we're restoring belongs to a private owner who picked it up at a scrapyard in the 1970s after NASA scrapped it.
That is one lucky find. Imagine that it had not been found and scrapped for its metal value. The mind boggles at the potential destruction of such a historical artifact.
> the cordwood components are mounted differently from the other cordwood modules.
For those from cities who have never seen cordwood:
Cordwood is a stack of wood of short length seen from the endgrain, typically used when referring to firewood but also sometimes used in construction.