Portal:Rocketry

The Rocketry Portal

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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Rocket 3.0 being prepared to launch.

The Astra Rocket was a small-lift space launch vehicle series designed, manufactured, and operated by American company Astra (formerly known as Ventions). The rockets were designed to be manufactured at minimal cost, employing very simple materials and techniques. They were also designed to be launched by a very small team, and be transported from the factory to the launch pad in standard shipping containers.

The Rocket name was shared by several launch vehicles. Rocket 1 was test vehicle made up of a booster equipped with five Delphin electric-pump-fed rocket engines, and a mass simulator meant to occupy the place of a second stage. Rocket 2 was a prototype similar to Rocket 1. Rocket 3 was a launch vehicle which added a pressure-fed second stage to the Delphin-powered booster. Its definitive variant, Rocket 3.3, featured a lengthened booster, and delivered satellites to orbit. Rocket 4 was to have been an all-new design for a larger, more powerful rocket. The rocket family originated in Small Air Launch Vehicle to Orbit (SALVO), a small launch vehicle powered by Astra's electric-pump-fed liquid rocket engine produced for the DARPA ALASA program. Following the end of the ALASA program, development of launch vehicle technology and systems continued, producing the Rocket family. (Full article...)

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In the news

3 June 2025 – Russian invasion of Ukraine: Four people are killed and 25 others are injured after Russian forces launch an MLRS rocket barrage at the centre of Sumy, Ukraine. (AP)
28 May 2025 – New Cold War: More than two million documents related to Russian military procurement from a public database for contractors are published, including information on the modernization and build-up of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, military base at Yasny, and Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle. (The Moscow Times) (Newsweek)

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General images - load new batch

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

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