Related topics: space shuttle

Hubble's impactful life alongside space debris

During its 30 years in orbit around Earth, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has witnessed the changing nature of spaceflight as the skies have filled with greater numbers of satellites, the International Space Station ...

NASA successfully tests five-segment solid rocket motor

NASA and ATK Space Systems successfully completed a two-minute, full-scale test of Development Motor-3 (DM-3), Thursday, Sept. 8. DM-3 is NASA's largest and most powerful solid rocket motor ever designed for flight.

NASA, AFOSR Test Environmentally-Friendly Rocket Propellant

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, or AFOSR, have successfully launched a small rocket using an environmentally-friendly, safe propellant comprised of aluminum powder and water ice, called ...

Future NASA rocket to be most powerful ever built (Update)

To soar far away from Earth and even beyond the moon, NASA has dreamed up the world's most powerful rocket, a behemoth that borrows from the workhorse liquid rockets that sent Apollo missions into space four decades ago.

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Solid-fuel rocket

A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a rocket with a motor that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid fueled, powered by gunpowder, used by the Chinese and Arabs in warfare as early as the 13th century. All rockets used some form of solid or powdered propellant up until the 20th century, when liquid rockets and hybrid rockets offered more efficient and controllable alternatives. Solid rockets are still used today in model rockets, and on larger applications for their simplicity and reliability. Since solid fuel rockets can remain in storage for long periods—and then reliably launch on short notice—they have been frequently used in military applications such as missiles. Solid fuel rockets are unusual as primary propulsion in modern space exploration, but are commonly used as booster rockets.

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