Portal:Rocketry

The Rocketry Portal

A rocket (from Italian: rocchetto, lit. ''bobbin/spool'', and so named for its shape) is an elongated flying vehicle that uses a rocket engine to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Unlike jet engines, rockets are fuelled entirely by propellant which they carry, without the need for oxygen from air; consequently a rocket can fly in the vacuum of space, indeed rocket engines operate more efficiently outside 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 may use momentum, airfoils, auxiliary reaction engines, gimballed thrust, momentum wheels, deflection of the exhaust stream, propellant flow, and spin, or may simply fly in a ballistic trajectory under the influence of 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 the consequences of accidents can be severe.

The term "rocket" is also used for small fireworks, which are the subject of article rocket (firework). (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article - show another

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 warhead or 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...)

More information List of selected articles ...

List of selected articles

Close

edit

In the news

28 June 2026 – Middle Eastern crisis: Israel says its military has destroyed a Hezbollah tunnel in Majdal Zoun, southern Lebanon, after notifying the United States. Israeli officials state that the 200-metre (660 ft) tunnel contained weapons and rocket launcher shafts. (AFP via Daily Sun) (Reuters)
10 June 2026 –: Maritime Launch Services test-launches its first Barracuda hypersonic rocket from Canso, Nova Scotia, Canada, but falls short of reaching the Karman Line. (The Globe and Mail)
6 June 2026 – Middle Eastern crisis: At least ten people, including three Lebanese soldiers, one of whom is a brigadier general, are killed by Israeli airstrikes on approximately 150 Hezbollah-linked sites across southern Lebanon over two days, including weapon storage areas, command centers, rocket launchers, and other military infrastructure. (AFP via Al Arabiya) (Al Jazeera)

Current events on Wikinews

edit

Topics

General images - load new batch

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

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