Artificial satellites are placed in their orbits around the earth with the help of very powerful launch vehicles or rockets. For this purpose specially designed rockets are fabricated by scientists. In rockets special kinds of fuels called rocket propellants are used. These fuels burn very rapidly and produce large amount of gases. When rocket discharge out these gases with high speed, the rocket move upward. The fuels used in rockets may be both in solid form or liquid form. The most common example of liquid fuel used in rockets is mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and that of solid fuel is mixture of powdered aluminium and ammonium nitrate.
Test Your Understanding and Answer These Questions:
- What are Rockets?
- What is meaning of rocket propellants?
- Give some examples of rocket propellants.