retrorockets
Thrust against motion
Retrorockets are small rockets that fire in the direction of travel to slow a spacecraft.
They provide braking thrust for orbital maneuvers, reentry, or soft landings: The retrorockets fired to begin the descent sequence.
The term combines retro- (backward) with rocket, describing their function of producing reverse thrust.
Reducing speed deliberately
- slowdownReduction in pace
- velocityDirected rate of motion
- momentumProduct of mass, velocity
- dragResistance through fluid
aerobraking · kinetic energy · damping · inertia · orbital decay · delta-v · decelerate · modulation
Enclosed dose container
- reentryComing back in
- moduleIndependent functional component
- command moduleSpacecraft's control and living section
- service moduleSpacecraft's power and propulsion unit
Soyuz · Apollo · attitude control · docking · rendezvous · heat shield · cosmonauts · astronauts
Six-point gridiron play
- descentDownward slope or lineage
- lunar landingSpacecraft alighting on moon
- Mars landingArrival on fourth planet
- soft landingControlled, gradual descent
braking
Reducing speed deliberately
drag · aerobraking · kinetic energy · damping · inertia · orbital decay · delta-v · decelerate · modulation · decrease
capsule
Enclosed dose container
- reentryComing back in
- moduleIndependent functional component
- command moduleSpacecraft's control and living section
service module · Soyuz · Apollo · attitude control · docking · rendezvous · heat shield · cosmonauts · astronauts · mission control
touchdown
Six-point gridiron play
- descentDownward slope or lineage
- lunar landingSpacecraft alighting on moon
- Mars landingArrival on fourth planet
thrust
Forceful forward motion
propellant · hydrazine · combustion · exhaust · engine · fuel · oxidizer · burn time · throttle · firing
- spacecraft partsengine, thrusters, antenna array, thruster, fuel tank
- rocket partsfuel tanks, booster, nozzles, thruster, combustion chambers
- spacecraft landingsoft landing, hard landing, splashdown, touchdown, vertical landing
- spacecraftspacecraft, starships, spaceship, Voyager 1, Voyager 2
- flight controlsailerons, elevators, yoke, rudder, aileron
- Space RoversCuriosity, Perseverance, Mars rover, lunar rover, Rashid
retrorocketsboosters
Things that increase power
booster rockets · accelerators · propulsion systems · afterburners · thrusters