American Saturn 5 rockets were 111-metre tall monsters, weighing 2,903 tonnes on the launch pad. That’s as heavy as 600 elephants! They were more greedy than elephants, too, burning 15 tonnes of fuel per second. Saturn 5 rockets were used to launch all the Apollo missions to the Moon.
What do rockets carry?
Rocket cargo is called the payload, the load that pays for the trip. Most rockets are designed to carry one or two satellites. Some satellites are for scientific research, some are for communication, and some are for spying. Of course, rockets can also carry people!
Is it true? Jet planes can fly in space.
No. jet engines need to take oxygen from the air around them to burn fuel. Because, there’s no air in space, a jet engine wouldn’t work up there.
Why do rockets have stages?
Rockets have to be big to carry enough fuel to escape the Earth’s pull. But once the fuel is burnt, those big engines and fuel tanks are useless. Their weight would make visiting the Moon very difficult. So rockets are made in stages, or pieces, which drop off when they’ve done their job.
Amazing! Three German engineers made a rocket-powered car in 1928! Fritz von Opel, Max Valier and Friedrich Sander tested the first version, Opel-Rak 1, on March 15, 1928. Opel later used the rocket knowledge he learnt from Valier to fit 16 rockets on to a glider plane. It was the second ever rocket-powered aircraft.
Picture Credit : Google
