A fiery jet of exhaust remains amid plumes of smoke as a Soyuz rocket lifts off from Baikonur Cosmodrome bound for the International Space Station. The lengthscales of such turbulence Keep reading
Tag: rockets
Reader Question: Rocket Propulsion
staunchreality-deactivated20120 asks: Hey there – Love the blog. Most interesting science blog I follow 🙂 This may be a silly question – is propulsion through space purely a function of exit Keep reading
Godspeed, Discovery!
The space shuttle, despite three decades of service, remains a triumph of engineering. Although it is nominally a space vehicle, fluid dynamics are vital throughout its operation. From the combustion Keep reading
Rocket Launch Phenomena
The launch of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) last year provided a rarely seen glimpse of how shock waves affect the atmosphere during launch, but only recently have researchers explained Keep reading
Mach Diamonds
Joe asks: Why does this rocket have that repeating pattern in its exhaust? I’m amazed that it’s so stable for so far as distance from the nozzle. Excellent question! The Keep reading