Rocket Launch

Information about Rocket Launch

A rocket launch is the first phase of the flight of a rocket. For orbital spaceflights, or for launches into interplanetary space, rockets are launched from a launch pad, which is usually a fixed location on the ground but may also be on a floating platform such as the San Marco platform, or the Sea Launch launch vessel.

Launches of suborbital flights (including missile launches), can also be from:

a missile silo
a mobile launcher vehicle
a submarine
air launch:
from a plane (e.g. Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne, Skybolt Ballistic Missile, X-15)
from a balloon (Rockoon, da Vinci Project (under development))
a surface ship (Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System)

Launches not into space can also be from:

the shoulder

"Rocket launch technologies" generally refers to the entire set of systems needed to successfully launch a vehicle, not just the vehicle itself, but also the firing control systems, ground control station, launch pad, and tracking stations needed for a successful launch and/or recovery.

When launching a spacecraft to orbit, a "dogleg" is a guided, powered turn during ascent phase that causes a rocket's flight path to deviate from a "straight" path. A dogleg is necessary if the desired launch azimuth, to reach a desired orbital inclination, would take the ground track over land (or over a populated area, e.g. Russia usually does launch over land, but over unpopulated areas). Doglegs are undesirable due to extra onboard fuel required, causing heavier load, and a reduction of vehicle performance.

Commercial launches

Commercial launch service providers include:

Boeing Launch Services Inc. (BLS) - Delta rocket
Sea Launch - Zenit-3SL (Zenit rocket stages 1 and 2 with Energia Block DM-SL upper stage)
EADS SPACE Transportation / Arianespace - Ariane rocket
International Launch Services (ILS) http://www.ilslaunch.com/ - Proton rocket
United Launch Alliance (ULA) - Delta IV And Atlas V
Starsem - Soyuz launch vehicle
ISRO - PSLV,GSLV

Viewing rocket launches

In the United States, dates for commercial and manned space launches are matters of public record, and are available months ahead of time. The exact dates of military launches remain confidential until only days before, but the months are public as well.

With the exception of the Space Shuttle, the visitor complex of the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida is open to the general public (with a nominal admission fee) for viewing rocket launches from the Space Center and from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Viewing Space Shuttle launches from the visitor center requires special reservations. The visitor center is generally 10 km (6 miles) from the launch pads. Special reservations for the Space Shuttle are required because it is a much more powerful vehicle than the expendable launch vehicles currently in use, as well as the possibility of a disaster that would result imminently in the deaths of the astronauts, like what happened to Challenger at the launch of mission STS-51-L. Outside KSC, the best launch sites are along the beaches within the vicinity.

Launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California can best be seen from the cities of Santa Maria or Lompoc, or the surrounding beaches.

Launches by Russia from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan can best be viewed from the city of Baikonur.

Launches by the European Space Agency from Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana can best be viewed from Kourou or the surrounding beaches.

Launch vehicles

Main article: launch vehicle

If a rocket is launched to deliver a payload from a planetary surface into space it is called a launch vehicle.

There are several broad categories that launch vehicles fall under, including:

For the launch vehicles currently in use for human spaceflight, see that article.

There were ca. 46 launches into space in 2004.

External links

rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving fluid from within a rocket engine.

The history of rockets goes back to at least the 13th century^[1].
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orbital spaceflight (or orbital flight) is a spaceflight in which a spacecraft is placed on a trajectory where it could remain in space for at least one orbit. To do this around the Earth, it must be on a free trajectory which has an altitude at perigee (altitude at closest
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Interplanetary space is that part of outer space between planets in a solar system and its local star(s), many of which are binaries. Around any one planet, "interplanetary" space begins in the broad region where any atmosphere, magnetic field and moons end, ceding dominance to the
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launch pad is the area and facilities where rockets or spacecrafts liftoff. A typical launch pad consists of the service and umbilical structures. The service structure provides an access platform to inspect the launch vehicle prior to launch.
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San Marco platform (also known as Luigi Broglio space centre after its founder Luigi Broglio) is a spaceport developed through a partnership between the Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali at the University of Rome La Sapienza and NASA to serve as a launch pad for Italian
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Sea Launch is a spacecraft launch service that uses a mobile sea platform for equatorial launches of commercial payloads on specialized Zenit 3SL rockets. As of January 2007 it had assembled and launched 24 rockets with two failures and one partial failure.
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A sub-orbital spaceflight (or sub-orbital flight) is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches space, but its trajectory then intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitational body from which it was launched, and thus does not enter a stable orbit.
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A missile (see also pronunciation differences) is a self-propelled, explosive projectile used as a weapon towards a target.

Etymology

The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, literally meaning "to send".
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missile silo is an underground vertical cylindrical container for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). They typically have the missile some distance under the surface, protected by a large "blast door" on top.
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A mobile launcher vehicle is a type of military vehicle on a multi-wheel-drive or crawler-tread chassis carrying one or more ground-to-ground or ground-to-air explosive missiles, along with the personnel and equipment needed to prepare, organize, and execute a launch of such
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submarine is a watercraft that can operate underwater. Military submarines were first widely used in World War I and are used by all major navies today. Civilian submarines and submersibles are used for scientific work at depths too great for human divers.
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Air launching is the practice of dropping a parasite aircraft, rocket, or missile from a mothership. The parasite aircraft or missile is usually is tucked under the wing of the larger mothership and then "dropped" from underneath the wing while in flight.
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Scaled Composites Model 316 SpaceShipOne completed the first privately funded human spaceflight on June 21, 2004.

SpaceShipOne was an experimental air-launched suborbital spaceplane that used a hybrid rocket motor.
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GAM-87A Skybolt was an air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) developed during the late 1950s. It was intended to provide a mobile basing for the USAF's ICBM missile force by mounting them on heavy bombers rather than in fixed missile silos.
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Type Rocket plane
Manufacturer North American Aviation
Maiden flight 8 June 1959
Introduced 17 September 1959
Retired December 1968
Status Museum piece
Primary users U.S.
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balloon is a flexible bag normally filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide or air. Early balloons were made of dried animal bladders. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene or a nylon fabric.
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A rockoon (derived from the terms rocket and balloon) was an extension to the rocket, which allowed the rocket to achieve further distance. The rockoon was a solid fuel rocket that, rather than being immediately lit while on the ground, was first carried into the
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The da Vinci Project was a privately funded, volunteer-staffed attempt to launch a reusable manned suborbital spacecraft. It was a contender for the Ansari X PRIZE for the first non-governmental reusable manned spacecraft.
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Custos Custodum Ipsorum - Guard of the Guardians, Themselves

The Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System is a US Department of Defense Missile Defense Agency program developed to provide a last line of defense against ballistic missiles.
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shoulder-launched missile weapon is a weapon that fires a projectile at a target, yet is small enough to be carried by a single person, and fired while held on one's shoulder.
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A ground control station (GCS) is a land- or sea-based control center that provides the facilities for human control of unmanned vehicles in the air or in space. A GCS could be used to control unmanned aerial vehicles or rockets within or above the atmosphere.
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An earth station or ground station is the surface-based (terrestrial) end of a communications link to an object in outer space. The space end of the link is occasionally referred to as a space station (though that term often implies a human-inhabited complex).
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Type Expendable launch system with various applications
Manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company
McDonnell Douglas
Boeing
Introduced 1960
Status active

The Delta
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Zenit

Zenit-2 rocket (Baikonur, 10 December 2001)
Fact sheet
Function Medium expendable Carrier rocket
Manufacturer Yuzhnoye Design Bureau
Country of origin Ukraine
Size
Height 57-59.
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Energia (or Energiya, Энергия in Russian, meaning Energy) rocket was a Soviet rocket that was designed by NPO Energia to serve as a heavy-lift expendable launch system as well as a booster for the Buran Space Shuttle.
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EADS Astrium Space Transportation was formed in June 2003 from the Space Infrastructure division of Astrium (whose core was originally ERNO) and the EADS Launch Vehicles division (formerly Aerospatiale's Space division).
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A French company, founded in 1980, Arianespace SA^[1] undertakes the production, operation and marketing of the Ariane 5 rocket launcher as part of the Ariane programme. It was the world's first commercial space transportation company.
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Ariane is a feminine name. It is a French translation of the Greek name Ariadne. Ariane is also an historical region in Asia (see Ariana, Aria).

People named Ariane

Princess Ariane of the Netherlands
Ariane Ehrat, a Swiss alpine skier

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