Rocket Pioneers
This Russian scientist developed the rocket equation describing how rockets gain velocity.
Who is Konstantin Tsiolkovsky?
The point where a rocket’s mass is perfectly balanced.
What is the center of gravity?
The force that pushes a rocket upward.
What is thrust?
This rocket launched the first artificial satellite, Sputnik
What is the R-7 rocket?
Which early rocket reached space first in 1944 and became the first human-made object to do so?
The German V-2 rocket
This American rocket pioneer launched the first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts in 19
Who is Robert Goddard?
The point where aerodynamic forces act on a rocket during flight.
What is the center of pressure?
The force that pulls the rocket back toward Earth.
What is gravity?
This U.S. rocket carried astronauts to the Moon.
What is the Saturn V?
In a stable rocket, the center of pressure must be located how far relative to the center of gravity?
Behind the center of gravity (typically 1–2 body tube diameters)
This German scientist wrote The Rocket into Planetary Space, a book that inspired many later rocket engineers.
Who is Hermann Oberth?
For a rocket to be stable, the center of pressure must be located relative to the center of gravity in this way.
Behind the center of gravity
The resistance a rocket experiences as it moves through air.
What is drag?
This program used the Redstone rocket to launch the first American astronaut.
What is Project Mercury
If a rocket’s center of pressure moves in front of the center of gravity, what happens?
The rocket becomes aerodynamically unstable and may tumble or spin
This rocket pioneer designed the V-2 rocket, the first human-made object to reach the edge of space.
Who is Wernher von Braun?
This term describes the curved path a rocket follows after motor burnout.
What is a ballistic trajectory?
Which of Newton’s laws explains why rockets move forward when exhaust gases move backward?
Newton’s Third Law
This Apollo mission was the first to land humans on the Moon.
What is Apollo 11
The rocket equation describes how the velocity of a rocket changes as it burns fuel.
Which pioneer developed this equation?
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
Which pioneer designed the first rocket believed to break the speed of sound, and what rocket was it?
Robert Goddard — one of his experimental liquid-fueled rockets (1930s test rockets).
This dimensionless number describes how fast an object is moving relative to the speed of sound.
What is the Mach number?
The momentum of rocket exhaust depends on two things: exhaust velocity and this quantity
Mass flow rate
The name of the first orbiting space-station, the country that launched it, and the name of program launch series
What is:
Spacelab
USA!
Gemini
What is the approximate speed of sound at sea level?
~343 m/s or 767 mph (Mach 1)