ROCKETS - Text only version

• A4 (V2)

  Fuelled by alcohol and liquid oxygen, the A4 was the first operational liquid-fuel rocket, carrying a one tonne explosive warhead. The motor ran out of fuel after just 60 seconds, but this was enough to push the rocket nearly 100 kilometres into the air and give it a range of over 320 kilometres. Nearly 6000 were built, and 3225 were launched.

• Atlas V

  The latest US launch vehicle, which will be ready for service in 2001. It will come in versions designed to carry payloads ranging from 5 to 13 tonnes into orbit around the earth. The first-stage of all versions will be the so called Common Core Booster powered by the liquid oxygen/kerosene, fuelled RD-180 engine. Solid-fuel boosters will provide the extra thrust needed for the heavier payloads. The second-stage will be equipped with either one or two RL-10 engines. In service since 1964, this engine design was the first to use liquid hydrogen as a rocket fuel.

• Bumper

  The Bumper-WAC was the first two-stage rocket built by the US. It combined a V2 first-stage with a US WAC-Corporal second-stage. Its purpose was to get more information about the stage separation and second-stage ignition that would be essential for very high-altitude rocket flights.

• Long March 4

  The latest of China’s successful liquid-propellant Long March rockets. It can carry a payload of 2.25 tonnes into geo-stationary orbit ('geo-stationary orbit' means that the object remains in a fixed position relative to the earth - e.g. directly over London).

• Mercury-Redstone

  This 25 metre-high, kerosene/liquid oxygen-powered, single stage rocket took the first Americans into space in 1961.

• N1

  The biggest rocket ever built by the Soviets, the N-1 ‘Super Booster’ was built as the launch vehicle for the Soviet attempt to put humans on the moon. Designed by Korolev and his team, and powered by 30 of the revolutionary N-15 closed-loop jet engines, it never had a successful launch. In 1974, the Soviet Politburo cancelled the project and ordered all remaining rockets and engines to be destroyed.

• ‘Nell’

  This was what Robert Goddard called the first-ever liquid-propellant rocket. It was about three metres tall, and powered by gasoline (petrol) and liquid oxygen. Its 2.5 second flight took it more than 12 metres into the air to land 56 metres from the launch site.

• Saturn V

  Saturn V was the largest US launch vehicle ever produced. With its Apollo Spacecraft payload, it stood over 110 metres high on the launch-pad. The first-stage F-1 engine, the largest liquid-fuelled engine ever designed, produced an amazing 33 million Newtons of thrust at lift-off.

• Zenit

  Present-day Russia’s main launch vehicle, Zenit is 57 metres long and is capable of carrying a 15 tonne payload into low orbit. The Zenit’s first-stage uses a single RD-171 closed-loop engine, an ecologically-clean development of the NK33 engines used for the N-1. The second-stage is powered by the smaller RD-120 engine.

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