Portal:Rocketry

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The Rocketry Portal

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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Peenemünde Museum replica of V2

The V2 (German: Vergeltungswaffe 2, lit. 'Retaliation Weapon 2'), with the technical name Aggregat 4 (A4), was the world's first long-range guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the Second World War in Nazi Germany as a "vengeance weapon" and assigned to attack Allied cities as retaliation for the Allied bombings of German cities. The V2 rocket also became the first artificial object to travel into space by crossing the Kármán line (edge of space) with the vertical launch of MW 18014 on 20 June 1944.

Research of military use of long-range rockets began when the graduate studies of Wernher von Braun were noticed by the Wehrmacht Heer. A series of prototypes culminated in the A4, which went to war as the V2. Beginning in September 1944, more than 3,000 V2s were launched by the Wehrmacht against Allied targets, first London and later Antwerp and Liège. According to a 2011 BBC documentary, the attacks from V-2s resulted in the deaths of an estimated 9,000 civilians and military personnel, while a further 12,000 laborers and concentration camp prisoners died as a result of their forced participation in the production of the weapons. (Full article...)

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13 June 2024 – Israel–Hamas war: Hezbollah launches more than 200 rockets at northern Israel. In response, Israeli artillery strikes targets in Yaroun, Hanine, and Yater in southern Lebanon. (The New York Times)
12 June 2024 – Israel–Hamas war: Israel kills three Hezbollah fighters and Taleb Abdullah, a senior commander, in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah retaliates by launching over 250 rockets towards northern Israel, the most the group has sent in the war. (Times of Israel) (Reuters)

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

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