Rocket

📖 In short

A rocket is a very powerful engine that pushes itself upward by blasting very hot gases downward with great force. Rockets carry satellites, spacecraft and astronauts away from the Earth.

🤩 Did you know?

A rocket can produce more than 3000 times the power of a car engine.
A rocket must travel at about 28000 kilometers an hour to orbit the Earth.
The pilot Charles Yeager flew faster than sound for the first time in 1947, in a rocket plane.
Some modern rockets come back and land upright to be used again.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 How does a rocket move?

Blow up a balloon and let it go without tying it: air rushes out of the opening backward, and the balloon shoots forward! A rocket works the same way, but much more powerfully.

🔍 It works in space

A rocket carries its fuel and the oxygen needed to burn it, so it can work in space where there's no air, unlike car and plane engines.

💡 Stages that separate

Big rockets are made of parts stacked on top of each other called stages. When the bottom stage runs out of fuel, it drops away, so the rocket becomes lighter and faster.

🎯 The story of rockets

The Chinese invented small gunpowder rockets hundreds of years ago and used them for fireworks. Then scientists developed giant rockets that took people to the Moon.

🧩 Test yourself

1 Why can a rocket work in space?

2 Who invented the first small gunpowder rockets?

3 A rocket can produce more than ?? times the power of a car engine.

4 Which picture shows “Rocket”?

🚀 Discover more

📷 Picture sources: Wikimedia Commons

Bill Ingalls · Public domain