Space Shuttle Regular exploration, frequent visits o astronauts into space and increasing costs made it necessary to develop a re-usable space craft which could be sent, into space, complete it’s mission and return to Earth and then be re-used. As a result of developmental work in this area, the first space shuttle, called ‘Columbia’ was launched into space by the United States of America in April 1981. The space shuttle resembles...

Rockets A rocket like a jet engine burns fuel to produce hot gases which it releases from the rear thus giving it the thrust to fly up into the air. However rockets are different from jet engines, since rockets fly up to high altitudes where no oxygen is present in the air, they have to carry their own supply of oxygen. On the other hand jet engines in aeroplanes draw the...

Jet Planes To fly, an aircraft has to first lift itself off the ground, this lift is produced by the movement of air under the aircraft’s wings, since they are slightly curved. As the thrust to move forward comes from the plane’s jet engines, which push the aeroplane forward by blowing compressed hot gas backwards, the plane moves forward to take off and the air flowing under the wings lifts the...