Flight To Orbit | Glenn Research Center | NASA ## Study Of Rockets The study of rockets is an excellent way for students to learn the basics of forces and the response of an object to external forces. All rockets use the thrust generated by a propulsion system to overcome the weight of the rocket. The aerodynamic drag and lift are important forces acting on the toy rockets, like stomp rockets, bottle rockets, and model rockets. For air-to-air and ground-to-air missiles, the aerodynamic forces are also significant. Aerodynamic forces are not as important for satellite launchers, because of the flight trajectory to orbit. The rocket gets out of the atmosphere as quickly as possible, then gains the velocity needed to remain in orbit. ## Thrust and Weight On this page we show the major events in the flight of a two-stage launch to orbit. Throughout the flight, the weight of the rocket is constantly changing because of the burning of the propellants. At launch, the thrust produced by the engine is greater than the weight of the rocket and the net force accelerates the rocket away from the pad. Unlike model rockets, full scale launchers rely on a sophisticated guidance system to bala