rocket

rocket

1. a Mediterranean plant, Eruca sativa, having yellowish-white flowers and leaves used as a salad: family Brassicaceae (crucifers)

2. any of several plants of the related genus Sisymbrium, esp S. irio (London rocket), which grow on waste ground and have pale yellow flowers

3. yellow rocket any of several yellow-flowered plants of the related genus Barbarea, esp B. vulgaris

4. sea rocket any of several plants of the related genus Cakile, esp C. maritima, which grow along the seashores of Europe and North America and have mauve, pink, or white flowers

5. dame's rocket another name for dame's violet See also dyer's rocket wall rocket

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

rocket

(rok -it) See launch vehicle; sounding rocket.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

What does it mean when you dream about a rocket?

A rocket in a dream may symbolize that the dreamer’s ideas or plans are about to take off like a rocket, very rapidly achieving orbit and bringing the dreamer the success he or she has been working for.

The Dream Encyclopedia, Second Edition © 2009 Visible Ink Press®. All rights reserved.

rocket

[′räk·ət]

(aerospace engineering)

Any kind of jet propulsion capable of operating independently of the atmosphere.

A complete vehicle driven by such a propulsive system.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Rocket

 

a flight vehicle propelled through space by the reactive thrust that occurs when the rocket ejects a portion of its own mass (the working fluid).

A typical rocket includes the following subassemblies: one or more rocket engines, a source of primary energy, a store of working fluid, and a payload. No ambient medium is needed for rocket flight; this factor renders the rocket the only suitable vehicle for space flights. The basic energy and operating characteristics of a rocket depend on the type of rocket engine and the type of fuel. Practically all modern rockets have engines that operate on a chemical fuel. The thrust developed by the rocket engine and the exhaust velocity of the reactive jet are of primary importance in a rocket; the thrust of the rocket engines used to launch spacecraft can reach 10 meganewtons, and the exhaust velocity of the reactive jet is between 3,000 and 4,500 m/sec.

Rockets are used for military purposes and scientific research and also for launching spacecraft. They may be unguided, as in some types of antitank, antiaircraft, and aircraft missiles, or guided. Guided missiles are equipped with devices that force the missile to alter its motion during flight. Guided ballistic rockets include rockets that use their own flight momentum over a major portion of their trajectories after shutting off the engine; for example, within the earth’s gravitational field a rocket moves along a curve that is part of an ellipse and is called a ballistic curve (seeBALLISTICS).

Depending on their major structural features, rockets may be classified as single-stage or multistage rockets. A modern single-stage rocket usually consists of a nose section, an instrument section, a fuel section, and an engine section. The nose section contains the payload (in military rockets this is an explosive charge), and the instrument section contains the guidance systems and other instruments. In contradistinction to liquid-propellant rockets, solid-propellant rockets feature integrated fuel and engine sections, because the entire fuel supply is housed within the engine chamber.

L. A. GIL’BERG

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.