A rocket burns fuel to make hot gas. The engine pushes the hot gas out its back. Rockets work by Newton's third law. The rocket pushes the gas backward. The gas pushes the rocket forward. At liftoff, a rocket's push is stronger than its weight. The push is called thrust. So the rocket rises off the launch pad.

A rocket starts off slowly. It goes faster and faster as it climbs. The more a rocket carries, the more fuel it needs. The fuel itself is heavy. A rocket that flew straight up would fall back to Earth when it ran out of fuel. So rockets tilt to the side as they climb. A rocket launched toward the east gets a boost from the speed of Earth's spin.

There is no air in space. A rocket engine still works there. The rocket carries its own oxygen. Rockets burn two kinds of fuel, liquid or solid. Most rockets drop the parts of themselves that are used up. These pieces are called stages.

The first known rockets were used in China in the 1200s. On March 16, 1926, Robert Goddard launched the world's first liquid-fueled rocket in Auburn, Massachusetts. It rose only 41 feet. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first human-made satellite. Sputnik sent out a radio "beep-beep" signal. People around the world could hear it. It fell back into Earth's atmosphere and burned up on January 4, 1958.

Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union was the first person in space. That was in April 1961. On July 16, 1969, a Saturn V rocket launched the Apollo 11 astronauts on their way to the Moon. The Saturn V stood 363 feet tall. That is taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Rockets launch satellites into orbit around Earth. A satellite about 300 km (190 miles) above Earth goes around the planet once in about 90 minutes. As of November 2026, SpaceX landed the first stage of a Falcon 9 upright on a landing pad. The pad was near its Florida launch site. The second stage went on to launch communications satellites.

Words to know

• thrust: a rocket's push
• stages: used-up rocket parts
• satellite: goes around Earth
• fuel: what rockets burn

The short version

A rocket burns fuel to make hot gas and pushes the gas out its back. By Newton's third law, the gas pushes the rocket forward. At liftoff the rocket's push, called thrust, is stronger than its weight, so it rises off the launch pad.

Quick facts

• Rockets work by Newton's third law: the rocket pushes its exhaust backward, and the exhaust pushes the rocket forward.
• A rocket engine works in space, where there is no air, because the rocket carries its own oxygen.
• A rocket that flew straight up would fall back to Earth when it ran out of fuel, so rockets tilt to the side as they climb.
• A rocket launched toward the east gets a boost from the speed of Earth's spin.
• On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first human-made satellite.