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The Rocketry Portal

A Soyuz-FG rocket launches from "Gagarin's Start" (Site 1/5), Baikonur Cosmodrome

A rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit. ''bobbin/spool'', and so named for its shape) 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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Launch of an Antares 230

Antares (/ænˈtɑːriːz/), known during early development as Taurus II, is an American expendable medium-lift launch vehicle developed and built by Orbital Sciences Corporation (later Orbital ATK and Northrop Grumman) with financial support from NASA under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program awarded in February 2008, alongside the company's automated cargo spacecraft, Cygnus. Like other launch vehicles developed by Orbital, Antares leveraged lower-cost, off-the-shelf parts and designs.

The first stage is liquid fueled, burning RP-1 (kerosene) and liquid oxygen (LOX). Due to Orbital's limited experience with large liquid stages, the construction was subcontracted to the Ukrainian companies Pivdenne and Pivdenmash. Initially, the Antares 100 series used refurbished NK-33 engines, remnants of the Soviet N1 moon rocket. However, after a catastrophic explosion, the Antares 200 series transitioned to newly built Russian RD-191 engines. Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Northrop Grumman announced plans for the Antares 300, featuring a new first stage developed in partnership with Firefly Aerospace. The new first stage, similar to Firefly's MLV launch vehicle, will incorporate composite structures and seven Miranda engines, increasing Antares's payload capacity. (Full article...)

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In the news

26 November 2024 – Japanese space program: JAXA aborts an Epsilon S engine test after a fire occurs at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. (DW) (CNA)
21 November 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: Hezbollah fires a rocket barrage at northern Israel, killing one person in the city of Nahariya. (Reuters)
19 November 2024 –: SpaceX launches their sixth Starship rocket at the Boca Chica launch pad in Brownsville, Texas, U.S. (Reuters)
6 November 2024 – Israel–Hezbollah conflict: Hezbollah fires rockets at Tel Aviv, Israel, with a rocket striking Ben Gurion Airport. (Yedioth Ahronoth)

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General images - load new batch

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

Image 1Von Braun's rocket team in 1961 (from History of rockets)
Image 2Layout of a V-2 rocket. (from History of rockets)
Image 3Robert Esnault-Pelterie (1909). (from History of rockets)
Image 4French Diamant rocket, the second French rocket program, developed from 1961 (from History of rockets)
Image 5Robert Goddard and the first liquid-fueled rocket. (from History of rockets)
Image 6The four expansion regimes of a de Laval nozzle:• under-expanded• perfectly expanded• over-expanded• grossly over-expanded (from Rocket engine)
Image 7Rocket 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 8Armadillo Aerospace's quad vehicle showing visible banding (shock diamonds) in the exhaust jet (from Rocket engine)
Image 9Simplified 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)
Image 10A Tomahawk cruise missile in flight (from Missile)
Image 11A German V-2 rocket on a Meillerwagen. (from History of rockets)
Image 12Robert Goddard (from History of rockets)
Image 13Simplified 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 14Opel RAK.1 - World's first public manned flight of a rocket plane on September 30, 1929. (from History of rockets)
Image 15Typical 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 16The Congreve rocket (from History of rockets)
Image 17Viking 5C rocket engine used on Ariane 1 through Ariane 4 (from Rocket engine)
Image 18An illustration of fire arrow launchers as depicted in the Wubei Zhi (17th century). The launcher is constructed using basketry. (from History of rockets)
Image 19RS-68 being tested at NASA's Stennis Space Center (from Rocket engine)
Image 20A "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 21A battery of Katyusha launchers fires at German forces during the Battle of Stalingrad, 6 October 1942 (from History of rockets)
Image 22Robert Anderson suggests using metal for rocket casing (from History of rockets)
Image 23Rockets carrying the Space Shuttle Discovery into Earth orbit in 2007 (from History of rockets)
Image 24A semi-active missile homing system (from Missile)
Image 25Signatories of the International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation. (from Missile)
Image 26A 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 27Rocket 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 28A V-1 flying bomb, amongst the first guided missiles (from Missile)
Image 29Rocket carts from the Wubei Zhi (17th century) (from History of rockets)

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