The second stage of a Minuteman III rocket

A multistage (or multi-stage) rocket is a rocket that uses two or more stages, each of which contains its own engines and propellant. The LGM-30 Minuteman is a United States nuclear Missile, a land-based Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM A rocket or rocket vehicle is a Missile, Aircraft or other Vehicle which obtains Thrust by the reaction of the A rocket engine is a Jet engine that uses only Propellant mass for forming its high speed propulsive jet. Rocket propellant is mass that is stored usually in some form of Propellant tank prior to being used as the propulsive mass that is ejected from a rocket engine in the form A tandem or serial stage is mounted on top of another stage; a parallel stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively two or more rockets stacked on top of or attached next to each other. Taken together these are sometimes called a launch vehicle. In Spaceflight, a launch vehicle or carrier rocket is a Rocket used to carry a payload from the Earth's surface into Outer space. Two stage rockets are quite common, but rockets with as many as five separate stages have been successfully launched.

By jettisoning stages when they run out of propellant, the mass of the remaining rocket is decreased. This staging allows the thrust of the remaining stages to more easily accelerate the rocket to its final speed and height.

In serial or tandem staging schemes, the first stage is at the bottom and is usually the largest, the second stage and subsequent upper stages are above it, usually decreasing in size. In parallel staging schemes solid or liquid rocket boosters are used to assist with lift-off. Solid rocket boosters (SRB (or motors SRM are used to provide the main Thrust in spacecraft launches from the launchpad up to burnout of the SRBs A Liquid Rocket Booster ( LRB) is similar to a Solid rocket booster (SRB attached to the side of a Rocket to give it extra lift at takeoff These are sometimes referred to as 'stage 0'. In the typical case, the first stage and booster engines fire to propel the entire rocket upwards. When the boosters run out of fuel, they are detached from the rest of the rocket (usually with some kind of small explosive charge) and fall away. An explosive material is a material that either is chemically or otherwise Energetically unstable or produces a sudden expansion of the material usually accompanied The first stage then burns to completion and falls off. This leaves a smaller rocket, with the second stage on the bottom, which then fires. This process is repeated until the final stage's motor burns to completion.

The Space shuttle has two large boosters and is not Single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO). NASA 's Space Shuttle, officially called Space Transportation System ( STS) is the United States government's current manned Launch A single-stage-to-orbit (or SSTO) vehicle reaches Orbit from the surface of a body without jettisoning hardware expending only propellants and fluids

A two-stage Delta III with nine solid rocket boosters attached. The Delta III rocket was an expendable Launch vehicle made by Boeing. (Photo courtesy Boeing)

Advantages

The main reason for multi-stage rockets and boosters is that once the fuel is burned, the space and structure which contained it and the motors themselves are useless and only add weight to the vehicle which slows down its future acceleration. Fuel is any material that is burned or altered in order to obtain energy By dropping the stages which are no longer useful, the rocket lightens itself. The thrust of future stages is able to provide more acceleration than if the earlier stage were still attached, or a single, large rocket would be capable of. When a stage drops off, the rest of the rocket is still traveling near the speed that the whole assembly reached at burn-out time. This means that it needs less total fuel to reach a given velocity and/or altitude.

A further advantage is that each stage can use a different type of rocket motor, with each stage/motor tuned for the conditions in which it will operate. Thus the lower stage motors are designed for use at atmospheric pressure, while the upper stages can use motors suited to near vacuum conditions. Lower stages tend to require more structure than upper as they need to bear their own weight plus that of the stages above them, optimizing the structure of each stage decreases the weight of the total vehicle and provides further advantage.

Disadvantages

Cutaway drawings showing three multi-stage rockets (Image courtesy NASA)

An artist's conception of the separation of the S1-B stage of a Saturn IB rocket (Image courtesy NASA)

The second stage being lowered into the first stage of a Saturn V rocket (Photo courtesy NASA)

A diagram of the second stage and how it fits into the complete rocket (Image courtesy NASA)

On the downside, staging requires the vehicle to lift motors which are not being used until later, as well as making the entire rocket more complex and harder to build. The Saturn IB was an uprated version of the Saturn I, which featured a much more powerful second stage the S-IVB. The Saturn V (pronounced 'Saturn Five' popularly known as the Moon Rocket was a multistage liquid-fuel expendable Rocket used by NASA 's Nevertheless the savings are so great that every rocket ever used to deliver a payload into orbit had staging of some sort. In Physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of one object around a point or another body for example the gravitational orbit of a planet around a star

In more recent times the usefulness of the technique has come into question due to developments in technology. In the case of the Space Shuttle the costs of space launches appear to be mostly composed of the operational costs of the people involved, as opposed to fuel or equipment. Reducing these costs appears to be the best way to lower the overall launch costs. New technology that is mainly in the theoretical and developmental stages is being looked at to lower the costs of launch vehicles. More information can be found on single stage to orbit designs that do not have separate stages. A single-stage-to-orbit (or SSTO) vehicle reaches Orbit from the surface of a body without jettisoning hardware expending only propellants and fluids

Development

From an illustration and description in the 14th century Chinese Huolongjing of Jiao Yu is the oldest known multistage rocket; this was the 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (huo long chu shui), used mostly by the Chinese navy. Chinese civilization originated in various city-states along the Yellow River ( valley in the Neolithic era The Huolongjing ( Wade-Giles: Huo Lung Ching; Traditional Chinese: 火龍經 rendered by its translator into English as Jiao Yu ( Traditional and Simplified Chinese: 焦玉 Wade-Giles: Chiao Yü, Hanyu Pinyin: Jiāo Yù) was a Chinese ^[1] It was a two-stage rocket that had carrier or booster rockets that would eventually burn out, yet before they did they automatically ignited a number of smaller rocket arrows that were shot out of the front end of the missile, which was shaped like a dragon's head with an open mouth. In Spaceflight, a booster may be either an entire Launch vehicle or "launcher" used to lift a Spacecraft. ^[1] This multi-stage rocket may be considered the ancestor to the modern exocet. The Exocet is a French -built Anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels submarines and airplanes ^[1] The historian Joseph Needham points out that the written material and depicted illustration of this rocket come from the oldest stratum of the Huolongjing, which can be dated roughly 1300-1350 AD (from the book's part 1, chapter 3, page 23). Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA ( December 9, 1900 – March 24 1995) was a British ^[1]

The earliest experiments with multistage rockets in Europe were made by Austrian Conrad Haas, the arsenal master of the town of Sibiu, Transylvania (now in Romania) in 1551. Conrad Haas (1509&ndash1576 was an Austrian Military engineer who is believed to be the first person to describe a Multistage rocket in writing Sibiu (si'biw Hermannstadt Nagyszeben Сибињ/Sibinj הערמאנשטאדט ( Hermanshtadt) or סזעבען ( Szeben)) is one of the largest cities in Transylvania (Ardeal or ro ''Transilvania'' Erdély, see also other denominations) is a Central European region located in the eastern half of the Carpathian Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania

This concept was developed independently by at least four individuals:

• the Polish Kazimierz Siemienowicz
• the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky
• the American Robert Goddard
• the ethnically German, Transylvanian-born Hermann Oberth. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Kazimierz Siemienowicz (Casimirus Siemienowicz Kazimieras Simonavičius Казімір Семяновіч born c Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Robert Hutchings Goddard, PhD ( October 5, 1882 &ndash August 10 1945 U The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as Transylvania (Ardeal or ro ''Transilvania'' Erdély, see also other denominations) is a Central European region located in the eastern half of the Carpathian Hermann Julius Oberth ( June 25, 1894 &ndash December 28, 1989) was a Austro-Hungarian -born German ( Transylvanian

Alternatives to rockets

Main article: Spacecraft propulsion

See also

• Bumper Project
• Conrad Haas
• Reusable launch system
• Single-stage to orbit

References