Rocket and Launch Vehicle Propulsion Systems

A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload, such as a crewed spacecraft or satellites, from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space, most commonly in the form of a ballistic-missile-shaped multistage rocket that lifts its payload toward orbital altitude and velocity using chemical propellants. This class gathers the atlas's own rocket-propulsion technologies that power such vehicles: a rocket engine is a reaction engine that produces thrust by ejecting a high-speed jet of hot gas from the combustion of onboard propellant, a solid rocket booster is a solid-propellant motor used to provide additional thrust during a launch vehicle's initial ascent, and a multistage rocket, or step rocket, is a launch vehicle built from two or more rocket stages, each carrying its own engines and propellant, so spent stages can be discarded to reduce the mass the remaining engines must accelerate.