What is rocket fuel made of? - All About Space
WEBOct 8, 2012 — This means solid fuel is quite prevalent in military applications and also the first stages of space rockets. Made from powdered aluminium and an oxidiser, this fuel is often used in booster rockets to give ’craft that extra kick needed to lift off and make their way into space. Answered by Josh Barker, Education Team Presenter for the ...
What is rocket fuel made of?
WEBThe Website for All About Space Magazine
The Frontier Is Everywhere: Beautiful unofficial NASA promo will ...
WEBOct 1, 2012 — The Frontier Is Everywhere: Beautiful unofficial NASA promo will inspire you. If you ever need reminding why space is awesome, this video should fit the bill. We would try and write something here but, really, we’ll just let the video do the talking. Carl Sagan’s excellent narration from The Pale Blue Dot provides the backdrop for this ...
What is the fastest spacecraft of all time? - All About Space
WEBMay 29, 2013 — The Helios probes hold the esteemed title of being the fastest satellites in space. They reached a fantastic 253,000 kilometers (157,000 miles) per hour as they raced around the Sun measuring the solar wind and environment near to the Sun. The main reason these probes went so quickly is because their trajectory had them plummet …
Why do spacecraft need heat shields to enter Earth but not to …
WEBMay 30, 2018 — Spacecraft are actually designed to make use of this, so the wide heat shield bears the brunt of deceleration as the spacecraft passes through the atmosphere. We use the atmosphere as a handy way to decelerate spacecraft, rather than relying on fuel alone. On the way up a rocket has its ‘pointy’ end first, reducing atmospheric drag.
Review: Sputnik 1 - All About Space
WEBJul 11, 2012 — Performance. Sputnik 1 travelled at about 18,000 mph (29,000 kph) and continued to transmit signals to Earth for 22 days after its launch, which is pretty impressive considering the rudimentary nature of the spacecraft. Due to its small size it wasn’t pulled back into the atmosphere by drag until three months later, when it burned up on re ...
How SpaceShipTwo will take paying customers into space
WEBMay 31, 2012 — It is made of a carbon-composite material and uses a rocket powered by nitrous oxide that propels the craft at 4,000 kilometres per hour. In fact, this is the most important difference between the first SpaceShipTwo vehicle, named VSS Enterprise (which uses a single rocket and consumes less fuel), and the Space Shuttle (which used two …
Future Tech: Antimatter sailing ships - All About Space
WEBSep 20, 2019 — Future Tech: Antimatter sailing ships. Ejected from their force field containment, antimatter particles would be sprayed towards the rigid sail, made out of carbon fibre and then coated on the inside with uranium as fission fuel for the propulsion system. Image credit: All About Space/Adrian Mann. The major limitation on space travel …
The Apollo 1 disaster: How three astronauts were killed 47 years …
WEBOn 27 January 1967 Apollo 1 was sitting on the launch pad atop a Saturn 1B rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station Launch Complex 34, the precursor to the Saturn V. It was set to perform a “plugs-out” test, during which both the launch vehicle and the spacecraft were not loaded with fuel and all pyrotechnic systems were disabled.
Heroes of Space: Scott Carpenter
WEBFeb 15, 2019 — Carpenter was among these seven men, who became known as the ‘Mercury Seven’. Carpenter’s time as part of the Mercury Seven crew was an incredible step forward in space exploration for the Americans, but they were still behind the Soviets. On 24 May 1962, Scott Carpenter boarded his Aurora 7 capsule on top of an Atlas rocket and …