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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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A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cruise missiles are capable of traveling at high subsonic, supersonic, or hypersonic speeds, are self-navigating, and are able to fly on a non-ballistic, extremely low-altitude trajectory. (Full article...)

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In the news

16 January 2025 – 2025 in spaceflight: Blue Origin launches its New Glenn rocket for the first time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, United States. The rocket's second stage, carrying a prototype Blue Ring spacecraft, successfully reaches a geocentric orbit, but its reusable first stage is lost during landing. (CNN)
15 January 2025 – Exploration of the Moon, Commercial Lunar Payload Services: A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, United States, carrying the American Blue Ghost M1 moon lander from Firefly Aerospace and the Japanese Hakuto-R Mission 2 moon lander from ispace. (BBC News)
3 January 2025 –: SpaceX successfully launches the United Arab Emirates Space Agency's communications satellite Thuraya 4-NGS via a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, United States. (Space News)
30 December 2024 –: The Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launches its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket carrying the Space Docking Experiment twin satellite mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, with the satellites expected to perform a docking maneuver on January 7, 2025. (DW) (The Times of India)

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

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