Portal:Rocketry

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A rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit. 'bobbin/spool') is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely from propellant carried within the vehicle; therefore a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space. Rockets work more efficiently in a vacuum and incur a loss of thrust due to the opposing pressure of the atmosphere.

Multistage rockets are capable of attaining escape velocity from Earth and therefore can achieve unlimited maximum altitude. Compared with airbreathing engines, rockets are lightweight and powerful and capable of generating large accelerations. To control their flight, rockets rely on momentum, airfoils, auxiliary reaction engines, gimballed thrust, momentum wheels, deflection of the exhaust stream, propellant flow, spin, or gravity.

Rockets for military and recreational uses date back to at least 13th-century China. Significant scientific, interplanetary and industrial use did not occur until the 20th century, when rocketry was the enabling technology for the Space Age, including setting foot on the Moon. Rockets are now used for fireworks, missiles and other weaponry, ejection seats, launch vehicles for artificial satellites, human spaceflight, and space exploration.

Chemical rockets are the most common type of high power rocket, typically creating a high speed exhaust by the combustion of fuel with an oxidizer. The stored propellant can be a simple pressurized gas or a single liquid fuel that disassociates in the presence of a catalyst (monopropellant), two liquids that spontaneously react on contact (hypergolic propellants), two liquids that must be ignited to react (like kerosene (RP1) and liquid oxygen, used in most liquid-propellant rockets), a solid combination of fuel with oxidizer (solid fuel), or solid fuel with liquid or gaseous oxidizer (hybrid propellant system). Chemical rockets store a large amount of energy in an easily released form, and can be very dangerous. However, careful design, testing, construction and use minimizes risks. (Full article...)

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Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet, the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft

A rocket-powered aircraft or rocket plane is an aircraft that uses a rocket engine for propulsion, sometimes in addition to airbreathing jet engines. Rocket planes can achieve much higher speeds than similarly sized jet aircraft, but typically for at most a few minutes of powered operation, followed by a gliding flight. Unhindered by the need for oxygen from the atmosphere, they are suitable for very high-altitude flight. They are also capable of delivering much higher acceleration and shorter takeoffs. Many rocket aircraft may be drop launched from transport planes, as take-off from ground may leave them with insufficient time to reach high altitudes.

Rockets have been used simply to assist the main propulsion in the form of jet assisted take off (JATO) also known as rocket-assisted takeoff (RATO or RATOG). Not all rocket planes are of the conventional takeoff like "normal" aircraft. Some types have been air-launched from another plane, while other types have taken off vertically – nose in the air and tail to the ground ("tail-sitters"). (Full article...)

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In the news

2 September 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: Hezbollah launches Katyusha rockets on Ein Ya'akov, Ga'aton and Yehiam, northern Israel. (Al Jazeera)
1 September 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: Hezbollah launches 20 rockets on Upper Galilee. (Al Jazeera)
29 August 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: Hezbollah launches four rocket and drone strikes on the outpost of the IDF 210th Golan Division in Nafah, Golan Heights. (Al Jazeera)
28 August 2024 –: The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounds all SpaceX Falcon 9 launches and orders an investigation following a booster rocket fire incident at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States. (AP)
25 August 2024 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Ukraine accuses Belarus of building up a "significant level" of troops and weaponry, including artillery, multiple-launch rocket systems and air defense systems along the border under the guise of military exercises, and demands their immediate withdrawal. (The Kyiv Independent) (Reuters); President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly presents the Ukrainian-produced Palianytsia rocket drone and loitering munition, intended to serve as the Ukrainian counterpart to the Russian ZALA Kub-BLA. (Ukrainska Pravda)

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General images - load new batch

The following are images from various rocketry-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Robert Esnault-Pelterie (1909). (from History of rockets)
Image 2Armadillo Aerospace's quad vehicle showing visible banding (shock diamonds) in the exhaust jet (from Rocket engine)
Image 3Rocket carts from the Wubei Zhi (17th century) (from History of rockets)
Image 4Von Braun's rocket team in 1961 (from History of rockets)
Image 5Rocket thrust is caused by pressures acting in the combustion chamber and nozzle. From Newton's third law, equal and opposite pressures act on the exhaust, and this accelerates it to high speeds. (from Rocket engine)
Image 6Robert Goddard and the first liquid-fueled rocket. (from History of rockets)
Image 7A simplified diagram of a solid-fuel rocket.
1. A propellant is packed with a hole in the middle
2. An igniter combusts the propellant
3. The hole acts as a combustion chamber
4. The hot exhaust is choked at the throat
5. Exhaust exits the rocket
(from Missile)
Image 8Viking 5C rocket engine used on Ariane 1 through Ariane 4 (from Rocket engine)
Image 9A semi-active missile homing system (from Missile)
Image 10Robert Goddard (from History of rockets)
Image 11A V-1 flying bomb, amongst the first guided missiles (from Missile)
Image 12Robert Anderson suggests using metal for rocket casing (from History of rockets)
Image 13French Diamant rocket, the second French rocket program, developed from 1961 (from History of rockets)
Image 14The four expansion regimes of a de Laval nozzle:• under-expanded• perfectly expanded• over-expanded• grossly over-expanded (from Rocket engine)
Image 15A Tomahawk cruise missile in flight (from Missile)
Image 16A battery of Katyusha launchers fires at German forces during the Battle of Stalingrad, 6 October 1942 (from History of rockets)
Image 17Simplified diagram of a liquid-fuel rocket:
1. Liquid fuel tank
2. Liquid oxidiser tank
3. Pumps feed fuel and oxidiser under high pressure.
4. Combustion chamber mixes and burns the propellants.
5. Exhaust nozzle expands and accelerates the gas jet to produce thrust.
6. Exhaust exits nozzle.
(from Rocket engine)
Image 18RS-68 being tested at NASA's Stennis Space Center (from Rocket engine)
Image 19Rockets carrying the Space Shuttle Discovery into Earth orbit in 2007 (from History of rockets)
Image 20Opel RAK.1 - World's first public manned flight of a rocket plane on September 30, 1929. (from History of rockets)
Image 21A "long serpent enemy breaking" fire arrow launcher as depicted in the Wubei Zhi (17th century). It carries 32 medium small poisoned rockets and comes with a sling to carry on the back. (from History of rockets)
Image 22An illustration of fire arrow launchers as depicted in the Wubei Zhi (17th century). The launcher is constructed using basketry. (from History of rockets)
Image 23Typical ballistic missile sequence:
- 1. Launches by firing motor1(A)
- 2. Stage1 drops, motor2(B) ignites & shroud(E) ejects
- 3. Motor3(C) ignites and separates
- 4. Stage3 terminates and post-boost vehicle(D) separates
- 5. Vehicle maneuvers itself and prepares re-entry vehicle (RV)
- 6. RV with decoys and chaffs deploys
- 7. RV re-enters the atmosphere
- 8. Warhead(s) detonate on target
(from Missile)
Image 24Rocket vehicle mechanical efficiency as a function of vehicle instantaneous speed divided by effective exhaust speed. These percentages need to be multiplied by internal engine efficiency to get overall efficiency. (from Rocket engine)
Image 25A German V-2 rocket on a Meillerwagen. (from History of rockets)
Image 26Layout of a V-2 rocket. (from History of rockets)
Image 27The Congreve rocket (from History of rockets)
Image 28Simplified diagram of a solid-fuel rocket:
1. Solid fuel–oxidiser mixture (propellant) packed into casing
2. Igniter initiates propellant combustion.
3. Central hole in propellant acts as the combustion chamber.
4. Exhaust nozzle expands and accelerates the gas jet to produce thrust.
5. Exhaust exits nozzle.
(from Rocket engine)