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Retrorocket

A retrorocket is a small auxiliary rocket engine integrated into a larger spacecraft or missile, designed to fire in the direction opposite to the vehicle's forward motion, thereby providing deceleration thrust for maneuvers such as orbital reentry, landing, or velocity reduction during descent.^[1] These engines typically use solid or liquid propellants and are positioned at the forward or aft end of the vehicle to counteract momentum effectively, distinguishing them from main propulsion systems that accelerate the craft.^[2] The concept of retrorockets emerged in the mid-20th century amid the dawn of space exploration, with early development tied to the needs of suborbital and orbital missions in the 1950s and 1960s.^[1] Initial applications appeared in programs like the Soviet Vostok capsules^[3] and NASA's Project Mercury, where retrorocket packs were essential for initiating reentry by reducing orbital velocity, as seen in the 1961 Mercury-Redstone 3 mission with astronaut Alan Shepard and subsequent orbital flights like John Glenn's in 1962.^[2] Over time, their role expanded to include precision landing systems, such as the Apollo Lunar Module's descent engine for soft landings on the Moon in 1969, and the Soyuz spacecraft's soft-landing rockets for final velocity control during Earth reentry.^[1] In contemporary spaceflight, retrorockets have become pivotal for reusable launch vehicles, enabling controlled vertical landings and boosting economic viability of missions. A landmark example is SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket, which first demonstrated successful retrorocket-assisted booster recovery in December 2015, allowing the first stage to land propulsively after separation and be refurbished for multiple flights.^[1] This technology also supports planetary exploration, combining retrorockets with parachutes and airbags for Mars landings, as in NASA's Perseverance rover mission in 2021, where powered descent mitigated atmospheric challenges.^[4] Ongoing advancements focus on optimizing aerodynamic interactions and thermal loads during retro-propulsion to enhance reliability for future crewed missions to the Moon and beyond.^[1]

Principles of Operation

Definition and Function

A retrorocket, also known as a retrograde rocket, is an auxiliary rocket engine that produces thrust in the direction opposite to a vehicle's current motion, thereby causing deceleration.^[5] This opposes the vehicle's velocity vector, distinguishing it from prograde rockets, which generate thrust aligned with the direction of motion to accelerate.^[6] The primary functions of a retrorocket include slowing spacecraft to initiate deorbit from orbit, enabling controlled atmospheric reentry by reducing entry speed, assisting in soft landings on planetary surfaces, and providing emergency reversal of direction to avoid collisions or correct trajectories.^[1] These roles are essential in spaceflight environments where alternative deceleration methods, such as aerodynamic drag, are unavailable or insufficient.^[7] At its core, the physics of a retrorocket relies on Newton's third law of motion, where the expulsion of high-velocity exhaust gases produces an equal and opposite reaction force on the vehicle, reducing its kinetic energy.^[6] The resulting deceleration follows from Newton's second law, expressed as a = -\frac{T}{m}, where a is the acceleration (negative for deceleration), T is the thrust magnitude, and m is the vehicle's mass. Retrorockets offer advantages such as precise velocity control in the vacuum of space, where aerobraking cannot be used, allowing for targeted maneuvers without reliance on atmospheric friction.^[7] However, they incur disadvantages including high propellant consumption, which can impose a 20-40% payload mass penalty, and potential aerodynamic instability from exhaust plume interactions if the thrust vector is misaligned.^[1]

Design and Thrust Mechanics

Retrorockets are engineered with propulsion systems oriented to produce thrust opposite to the vehicle's forward velocity, typically featuring solid-fuel or hypergolic liquid engines mounted such that their nozzles point forward, in the direction of the vehicle's motion, to expel exhaust ahead and produce rearward thrust.^[8] These engines include a combustion chamber, propellant storage (grain for solids or tanks for liquids), and an ignition system—such as pyrogen igniters for solid propellants or spark or laser igniters for liquids—to enable on-demand firing during critical maneuvers.^[8]^[9] Nozzles are designed with materials like graphite throats and laminated plastic exit cones to withstand high-temperature exhaust, ensuring efficient expansion of gases in vacuum or low-pressure environments.^[8] The thrust mechanics of retrorockets rely on generating decelerative force through high-velocity exhaust, quantified by the total impulse delivered, given by the equation I = \int T \, dt, where T is thrust and t is time.^[9] Specific impulse, a measure of efficiency, is defined as I_{sp} = \frac{v_e}{g_0}, with v_e as exhaust velocity and g_0 as standard gravity (9.81 m/s²).^[9] For vector control, nozzles may be fixed or gimbaled to direct thrust along the desired axis, often supplemented by differential throttling in multi-engine clusters; pulse modulation allows fine adjustments by firing in short bursts, as seen in systems with minimum pulse durations of about 65 ms.^[9]^[10] In solid systems, thrust profiles are fixed, typically ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 pounds over operational temperature bands, while liquid designs support throttling down to 20% of maximum thrust for precise control.^[8]^[9] Design considerations for retrorockets emphasize reliability in harsh environments, including thermal protection systems (TPS) such as asbestos and silica-filled rubber insulation on the engine case to shield against combustion heat and external reentry fluxes.^[8] Vibration isolation is critical, with accelerometers monitoring structural dynamics during firing to prevent damage from acoustic and mechanical loads, particularly at nozzle startup.^[8]^[9] Redundancy is incorporated through clustered engines (e.g., six units) and dual systems for ignition and control, enhancing fault tolerance.^[9] A key challenge in atmospheric operations is nozzle erosion from retrograde exhaust interacting with high-speed airflow, necessitating computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling for plume impingement and material selection to mitigate ablation.^[9] Fuel types in retrorockets prioritize simplicity and storability: solid propellants, such as aluminum-ammonium perchlorate-polyhydrocarbon composites, offer reliable, non-throttleable performance for short burns in early designs.^[8] Hypergolic liquids, like monomethylhydrazine (MMH) fuel and nitrogen tetroxide (N₂O₄) oxidizer, provide instant ignition without external systems, ideal for attitude control and ullage roles.^[10] Advanced liquid bipropellants, such as liquid oxygen (LO₂) and liquid methane (LCH₄), enable throttleability and in-situ resource utilization compatibility in modern retropropulsion, supporting sustained deceleration.^[9]

Historical Development

Early Concepts and Pre-Space Age Uses

The concept of retrorockets originated in the early 1940s amid World War II military efforts to develop braking systems for gliders and anti-submarine weaponry, with the term "retrorocket" first recorded between 1945 and 1950 as a combination of "retrograde" and "rocket" to describe thrust-generating devices that oppose forward motion.^[11] Early innovations focused on solid-fuel rockets for short-duration deceleration, limited by primitive propellants that provided only brief burns of a few seconds, restricting their utility to low-speed applications.^[12] German engineers pioneered practical retrorocket use during the war with the DFS 230 assault glider, introduced in 1940 for airborne operations. The DFS 230B and later variants incorporated nose-mounted braking rockets, typically three small solid-fuel units, to reduce landing speed on unprepared surfaces and enable rapid troop deployment. These rockets fired on touchdown to provide retrograde thrust, supplementing drag parachutes and skid brakes, though their short burn times—often under 5 seconds—necessitated precise timing to avoid overshooting targets. Over 1,600 DFS 230s were produced, seeing combat in operations like the 1940 assault on Fort Eben-Emael and the 1941 Crete invasion, where the braking system proved essential for confined landing zones.^[13] Allied forces pursued similar glider braking experiments, with British designers evaluating rocket-assisted deceleration for prototypes like the General Aircraft Hotspur during 1940–1942 trials, though operational gliders such as the Airspeed Horsa relied more on parachutes due to rocket reliability issues. In the United States, the Navy developed the "Retrobomb" or "Retrorocket" in 1941–1943 as an anti-submarine weapon, a backward-firing solid-fuel rocket with a 35-pound (16 kg) warhead dropped from patrol aircraft like the PBY-5A Catalina to slow and immobilize submerged U-boats for follow-up attacks. The first test drop occurred on July 3, 1942, marking the initial air-launched rocket in U.S. service, with operational deployment in 1943; by 1945, squadrons like VP-63 had sunk several submarines using the device in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.^[14]^[12] By the early 1950s, pre-space aviation experiments extended retrorocket concepts to powered aircraft and missiles for controlled deceleration. U.S. Air Force tests on experimental jets explored retro-thrust for short-field landings, while early guided missiles like the MGM-1 Matador incorporated rudimentary retro systems to achieve precise impacts, building on wartime solid-propellant limitations but still constrained by brief firing durations. These braking innovations contributed to growing interest in rocketry amid post-war developments.^[15]

Evolution in the Space Race Era

During the 1950s, the United States and the Soviet Union initiated experiments with retrorockets to enable satellite deorbit and orbital control, driven by the need for controlled reentry in early space programs. These efforts focused on unmanned probes, representing one of the first space uses of such systems.^[16] Soviet counterparts conducted parallel tests for lunar probes, laying the foundation for later soft-landing capabilities, though initial applications remained limited to suborbital demonstrations.^[17] The 1960s saw significant advancements through NASA's manned programs, where retrorockets became essential for safe reentry. In Project Mercury (1961–1963), three solid-fuel TE-316 retrorockets, each producing 1,000 pounds of thrust for approximately 10 seconds, were mounted over the heat shield to decelerate the spacecraft from orbit, enabling precise deorbit burns as demonstrated in missions like Mercury-Atlas 6. Building on this, the Gemini program (1965–1966) employed four TE-M-385 solid-fuel retrorockets per spacecraft, delivering 2,580 pounds of thrust for 5–6 seconds to achieve finer reentry control, as used in all ten manned flights for both nominal and abort scenarios.^[18]^[19]^[20] The Apollo era (1968–1972) integrated retrorockets more sophisticatedly into lunar missions. The service module's reaction control system (RCS) thrusters, using hypergolic propellants, provided attitude control and minor velocity adjustments during trans-Earth injection maneuvers, complementing the main service propulsion system for trajectory reversal from lunar orbit. For the lunar module, the descent propulsion system (DPS) engine served as a primary retropropulsion unit, throttling between 10% and 60% to enable soft landings on the Moon's surface, as successfully executed in Apollo 11 and subsequent missions.^[21]^[22]^[23] In the 1970s, retrorocket technology evolved toward reusable systems and refined reliability for extended missions. NASA's Space Shuttle design, initiated in the early 1970s with first flight in 1981, incorporated the Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS) engines—two hypergolic thrusters each producing 6,000 pounds of thrust—for orbital insertion, plane changes, and deorbit, emphasizing storable propellants for multiple uses. Soviet refinements to the Soyuz spacecraft included upgrades to its SKD main engine and RCS thrusters, both hypergolic, for more precise deorbit burns during Salyut station missions, enhancing safety after the Soyuz 11 tragedy in 1971.^[24]^[25] A key technological shift during this period was the transition from solid-fuel retrorockets, valued for simplicity in early programs like Mercury and Gemini, to hypergolic liquid propellants for greater reliability, throttleability, and restart capability in Apollo, Shuttle, and Soyuz systems. This change improved mission flexibility, as hypergolics ignite on contact without igniters, reducing failure risks in vacuum environments. NASA also conducted 1960s testing milestones, including Mars landing simulations using retrorocket analogs to model descent plumes and surface interactions, informing future planetary landers.^[26]^[27]

Applications in Spaceflight

Deorbit and Reentry Maneuvers

Retrorockets are essential for deorbit maneuvers, providing the retrograde thrust needed to reduce a spacecraft's orbital velocity and lower its perigee into Earth's atmosphere, where aerodynamic drag can then facilitate controlled reentry. In low Earth orbit (LEO), spacecraft typically travel at approximately 7.8 km/s, and a deorbit burn imparts a delta-v of 100-200 m/s to decay the orbit sufficiently for reentry within hours to days, depending on the exact perigee achieved. This controlled deceleration prevents uncontrolled orbital decay while ensuring the trajectory targets a safe landing zone, such as an ocean splashdown area.^[28]^[29] In the early U.S. human spaceflight programs, retrorockets enabled precise deorbit for the Mercury and Gemini capsules. Project Mercury's spacecraft employed three solid-fuel retrorockets mounted on the heat shield, firing sequentially for a total duration of about 30 seconds to deliver a retrograde delta-v of roughly 152 m/s (500 ft/s), resulting in decelerations of 0.1-0.2 g. These burns were critical for the 1960s missions, allowing the capsules to transition from orbit to atmospheric reentry. Similarly, the Gemini program's Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS) handled deorbit burns with liquid-fueled thrusters, achieving comparable low-g decelerations over approximately 20 seconds of firing; the inaugural manned Gemini 3 mission in March 1965 demonstrated this capability with a successful retro burn that initiated reentry despite a minor trajectory deviation from unpredicted aerodynamic lift.^[29]^[30] Later programs relied on larger integrated propulsion systems functioning as retrorockets for deorbit. The Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) used its Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine—a hypergolic retrograde thruster—for Earth-return deorbit burns during lunar missions from 1969 to 1972, typically imparting a delta-v of around 77 m/s (252 fps) in short pulses of 10-12 seconds to set up Pacific splashdowns. The Space Shuttle's Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS), operational from 1981 to 2011, performed retrograde deorbit firings with two bipropellant engines, requiring 60-90 m/s delta-v depending on orbital altitude; these maneuvers, lasting 2-3 minutes, also supported pre-deorbit checks of the payload bay doors by maintaining orientation for thermal imaging verification.^[31]^[32] Mechanically, deorbit burns are executed at the orbit's apogee for optimal efficiency in perigee reduction, with the spacecraft first maneuvered to a precise retrograde attitude using reaction control systems (RCS) thrusters to align the main engine nozzle opposite the velocity vector. The burn sequence involves ignition under computer guidance, monitoring thrust vector alignment to avoid off-nominal torques, and cutoff based on velocity feedback; attitude hold during the burn relies on RCS pulses to counteract any imbalances. A key risk is plume impingement, where exhaust from RCS or misaligned main thrusters could erode or heat the heat shield prematurely, potentially compromising reentry integrity—studies emphasize precise plume modeling to mitigate such effects during orientation phases.^[33]^[34] These retrorocket-enabled deorbits consistently achieved safe reentries, with Mercury and Gemini missions culminating in successful ocean recoveries that validated the technology for human spaceflight. For instance, Gemini 3's 1965 deorbit burn lowered perigee to initiate reentry, resulting in a splashdown 84 km short of the primary site but with no injuries and full mission objectives met, paving the way for subsequent orbital programs. Apollo and Shuttle operations further refined this process, enabling hundreds of precise splashdowns and runway landings without thermal protection failures attributable to deorbit errors.^[30]^[35]

Launch Vehicle Staging and Separation

In launch vehicle staging, retrorockets deliver small retrograde impulses to the upper stage immediately after physical separation from the spent lower stage, ensuring sufficient relative velocity to prevent recontact and collision during ascent. These impulses, typically on the order of a few meters per second in delta-v, counteract residual forward momentum and aerodynamic forces that could cause the stages to collide.^[36] The primary goal is to achieve a clear separation distance, often 10-20 meters within seconds, while minimizing propellant expenditure on the upper stage.^[37] Historically, early American launch vehicles like the Atlas and Delta series from the 1950s and 1960s employed pyrotechnic retrorockets for stage separation. The Atlas-Centaur configuration used retrorockets mounted on the Atlas booster to push it away from the Centaur upper stage after explosive charges severed the connection, providing the necessary retrograde force to retard the lower stage's motion.^[38] Similarly, Delta rockets incorporated retrorockets for separating strap-on boosters and core stages, as seen in the Thor-Delta variants, where solid-propellant motors fired briefly to ensure safe divergence.^[36] The Saturn V launch vehicle (flown 1967-1973) utilized ullage motors on upper stages, such as the S-II and S-IVB, which served dual purposes: settling propellants in zero-gravity environments prior to main engine ignition and providing mild retrograde thrust to aid separation from the lower stage.^[39] In the Space Shuttle program (1981-2011), solid rocket boosters (SRBs) were separated using dedicated booster separation motors (BSMs), small solid-propellant rockets that fired axially to impart a retrograde velocity to the SRBs relative to the external tank and orbiter stack.^[40] Retrorockets for staging are typically short-burn solid motors, lasting 1-3 seconds, designed for high thrust-to-weight ratios to deliver impulse efficiently. These are often integrated with or repurposed from ullage thrusters, which are clustered around the vehicle's interstage section and oriented aft to provide both settling and separation functions.^[36] The separation velocity imparted can be approximated by the equation v_{\text{sep}} = \frac{T \cdot t_{\text{burn}}}{m}, where T is the thrust, t_{\text{burn}} is the burn duration, and m is the mass of the stage at separation; this impulse ensures the upper stage accelerates forward while the lower stage decelerates.^[37] Key challenges in retrorocket usage for staging include precise timing of ignition to avoid recontact, as even slight delays or insufficient thrust can lead to collisions under high dynamic pressures during ascent. Early satellite launches in the 1950s and 1960s experienced several such failures, where booster stages failed to separate properly due to inadequate retrograde impulses from pyrotechnic devices, resulting in mission losses.^[37] For instance, tests of vehicles like the Titan series highlighted the need for asymmetric retrorocket placement to account for center-of-gravity offsets, preventing unintended tumbling post-separation.^[41]

Descent and Landing Systems

Retrorockets are essential components in descent and landing systems, providing controlled powered deceleration to transition spacecraft from hypersonic entry speeds to subsonic or near-stationary velocities for soft touchdowns on airless or thin-atmosphere bodies like the Moon and Mars. These systems enable precise trajectory adjustments, hover capabilities, and final braking to counteract gravitational acceleration during the terminal phase of entry, descent, and landing (EDL). A prominent example is the Apollo program's Lunar Module descent propulsion system (DPS), a throttleable hypergolic bipropellant engine that served as the primary retrorocket from 1969 to 1972, delivering up to 10,450 lbf of thrust while gimbaling for attitude control.^[42] This engine throttled between 10% and 100% capacity, allowing astronauts to maintain stable descent rates of about 10-20 m/s and hover for site selection over the uneven lunar terrain.^[43] Historically, retrorockets facilitated the first soft landings beyond Earth. In NASA's Surveyor program from 1966 to 1968, a solid-fueled retrorocket fired seconds before touchdown to reduce velocity from 100 m/s to near zero at an altitude of 3.5 meters, after which it was jettisoned and the spacecraft free-fell the remaining distance using vernier thrusters for fine adjustments, achieving successful soft touchdowns on five missions.^[44] The Viking Mars landers, deployed in 1976, utilized three monopropellant hydrazine terminal descent engines—each producing 2,600 N of thrust—for the final braking phase after parachute separation at 1.5 km altitude, slowing the descent from 250 m/s to under 3 m/s while providing attitude control in Mars' thin atmosphere.^[45] Similarly, the Soviet Luna program from 1959 to 1976 employed retrorockets for impact braking in early missions like Luna 2 (1959) and evolved to soft landings, as in Luna 9 (1966), where a 46-second braking burn reduced velocity by approximately 2.6 km/s before releasing the instrument capsule at 20 meters altitude.^[46] In modern applications, NASA advanced retrorocket technology through 2010s testing of supersonic retropropulsion (SRP) for Mars EDL, aiming to land heavier payloads like human-scale habitats by firing engines at Mach 2-3 to provide additional deceleration beyond parachutes and heat shields.^[47] These efforts included wind tunnel simulations at facilities like the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel, validating throttleable liquid engines for "hover-slam" maneuvers that combine sustained thrust for hovering with rapid final descent arrest.^[48] Key challenges include meeting delta-v budgets of 2-3 km/s for Mars terminal descent to nullify residual velocities after aerocapture, which scales with payload mass and entry conditions.^[9] A critical risk in low-gravity environments is plume-induced regolith kick-up, as evidenced in Apollo landings where the DPS exhaust excavated lunar soil up to 10 meters away, creating visibility-obscuring dust clouds and surface erosion, prompting designs like Surveyor's jettisonable retrorocket to minimize such effects.^[49]

Reusable Vehicle Recovery

Retrorockets have played a pivotal role in the recovery of reusable launch vehicles, particularly through innovations in the private sector since the 2010s, enabling dramatic reductions in space access costs. SpaceX's Falcon 9 achieved the first successful vertical landing of an orbital-class rocket first stage on December 21, 2015, using its Merlin engines to perform entry and landing burns that decelerated the booster from hypersonic speeds.^[50] As of November 2025, Falcon 9 has completed over 550 successful first-stage landings out of more than 570 attempts, achieving a success rate of over 98%.^[51] This approach has reduced launch costs by 30 to 50 percent compared to expendable configurations, primarily by reflights of the first stage and fairings, which comprise a significant portion of vehicle expenses.^[52]^[53] Central to Falcon 9's recovery technique is supersonic retropropulsion, where three of the nine Merlin engines ignite for an entry burn at altitudes above 60 km and Mach numbers exceeding 5 to mitigate atmospheric heating and peak deceleration loads.^[54] This is often preceded by a boost-back burn shortly after stage separation to reverse the booster's trajectory toward the launch site or a droneship, conserving propellant for the subsequent landing phase. The final maneuver, known as a suicide burn, involves a single center Merlin engine throttling up to full power near the surface, arresting descent velocity from hundreds of meters per second to a gentle touchdown in seconds.^[55] SpaceX's Starship prototypes, tested extensively in the 2020s, extend this concept to full-stack reusability with Raptor engines providing retropropulsion for both the Super Heavy booster and upper stage. A milestone was achieved in October 2024 with the first successful catch of the Super Heavy booster using the launch tower's mechanical arms during Flight Test 5, followed by additional tests in 2025 demonstrating routine retropropulsion landings and supporting orbital refueling operations via tanker variants for precise Earth or planetary landings.^[56]^[57] Other private ventures have adopted similar retropropulsion strategies for suborbital and small-lift reusability. Blue Origin's New Shepard vehicle accomplished its first vertical landing on November 23, 2015, using the hydrogen-fueled BE-3 engine to execute a powered descent from suborbital altitudes, enabling over 20 reflights by 2025 for crewed and uncrewed missions.^[58] Rocket Lab's Electron rocket, operational since 2017, initially focused on helicopter-based mid-air recovery of its first stage via parachutes following reentry in 2019 tests, but subsequent plans incorporate retropropulsion assistance with Rutherford engines to refine descent trajectories and enhance capture success rates.^[59] Key advancements in these systems include aerodynamic control mechanisms like grid fins on Falcon 9 and Starship boosters, which deploy post-reentry burn to provide hypersonic steering by modulating lift and drag forces during the terminal descent phase.^[60] Recent analyses, such as 2024 computational fluid dynamics studies on nozzle performance during retropropulsion, highlight the importance of specific impulses exceeding 300 seconds—achievable with engines like the Merlin (311 s at sea level) and Raptor (330 s vacuum)—to optimize propellant efficiency and enable economic reusability across multiple flights.^[61]

Emergency and Experimental Uses

Retrorockets have played critical roles in emergency abort scenarios during space missions, providing essential trajectory adjustments and attitude control when primary systems fail. During the Apollo 13 mission in 1970, following the oxygen tank explosion at 56 hours into the flight, the crew utilized the Lunar Module Aquarius's Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters—small retrorockets—to stabilize the spacecraft's attitude and perform midcourse corrections for the free-return trajectory to Earth. These maneuvers compensated for unintended propulsion from leaking gases in the damaged Service Module, ensuring the crew could safely return without executing the originally planned Descent Propulsion System burn for a faster trans-Earth injection.^[62] In the Space Shuttle program from the 1980s to 2011, RCS retrorockets were integral to various abort modes, enabling precise attitude control during ascent emergencies such as Return to Launch Site (RTLS) or Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL). The orbiter's RCS, consisting of 44 primary thrusters (each producing about 3,900 pounds of thrust in vacuum), allowed crews to maintain orientation and execute powered returns or orbital insertions after main engine failures, as demonstrated in simulations and contingency planning for missions like STS-51-F in 1985. These systems provided three-axis control to prevent tumbling and support safe reentry, with propellant reserves allocated specifically for abort scenarios.^[63] Experimental applications of retrorockets have highlighted their potential in high-risk, non-routine operations, though often with challenges leading to program cancellations. In Operation Credible Sport, a 1980 U.S. military project (initiated after the 1979 Iran hostage crisis), three Lockheed C-130 Hercules prototypes were modified with multiple retrorocket sets—including eight forward-facing ASROC motors for deceleration and eight downward Shrike missiles for vertical braking—to enable short-field landings in confined areas like stadiums. Each ASROC motor delivered approximately 30,000 pounds of thrust, but the program suffered a fatal crash during testing when premature rocket firing severed a wing, resulting in the sole prototype loss and ultimate cancellation after Iran's hostage release.^[64] Similarly, in the 1960s, NASA conducted wind tunnel tests on supersonic retro-propulsion (SRP) systems for Mars landers, using small-scale models to evaluate drag augmentation from nozzle exhaust during hypersonic entry. These experiments demonstrated SRP's ability to alter aerodynamics for heavier payloads but were abandoned by the mid-1970s due to complexities in high-thrust ignition, controllability, and limited data, with the Viking missions opting for parachute-based descent followed by terminal propulsion instead.^[9] Post-World War II military developments in the 1950s explored retrorockets for aircraft emergency deceleration, particularly in U.S. Navy experiments with "Rocket on Rotor" (ROR) systems on helicopters to enhance rapid stops and vertical landings under combat conditions. These tests integrated small solid-fuel rockets to augment rotor braking, reducing descent rates in emergencies, though the concepts evolved into more conventional recovery systems by the 1960s. Recent research, such as NASA's 2024 simulations of unsteady supersonic retropropulsion flows over hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerators, continues to investigate these technologies for braking hypersonic vehicles during atmospheric entry, focusing on plume interactions to enable precise control at Mach 5+ speeds.^[65]^[66]

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The initial OMS used LO2/LH2, later changed to storable NTO/Aerozine-SO. The tanks were sized for 22,000 pounds of propellant, with two forward firing engines.Missing: retrorockets | Show results with:retrorockets
[31]
[PDF] Plume Impingement Studies in Space Environments for NASA Deep ...
Jan 21, 2022 · Plume Impingement Summary. ▫ Focus here has been on RCS chemical rocket engine plume impingement; however, other plume sources exist and are ...
[32]
[PDF] COMMAND AND SERVICE MODULE REACTION CONTROL ...
The Apollo command and service module reaction control systems were developed and modified between July 1961 and July 1969, with extensive testing.
[33]
[PDF] Reentry and Recovery from Space - NASA
This book covers reentry and recovery from space, including space vehicle atmospheric entry, design, and early ideas about spaceplanes.
[34]
[PDF] ares i stage separation system design certification testing
This paper surveys historical separation system tests that have been completed in order to ensure staging of other launch vehicles. Key separation system design ...
[35]
[PDF] FLIGHT SEPARATION MECHANISMS
On several early satellite launches, booster stages failed to separate. On a military mission, the final booster stage overtook and bumped the spacecraft ...
[36]
[PDF] PROJECT: CENTAUR (AC-8)
The Atlas sustainer engine. The Atlas and Centaur stages are then separated by an explosive, shaped charge and retrorockets mounted.on the Atlas. Centaur's ...
[37]
[PDF] Saturn V Step-by-Step | NASA
Jan 5, 2025 · Each retrorocket has a thrust of 88,600 pounds. The retrorockets firing upward on the first stage and the ullage rockets firing downward on ...
[38]
Space shuttle Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) separation
The system is described which is used to separate the solid rocket boosters from the space shuttle after they have expended most of their propellant.
[39]
[PDF] TITAN IIIE/CENTAUR D-IT SYSTEMS SUMMARY
3.1.4 TITAN/CENTAUR STAGING SYSTEM. Physical separation of the two stages results from retrorocket forces that retard the forward motion of the Titan. Four ...
[40]
Rocket Propulsion Evolution: 9.42 - LM Descent Engine
Dec 28, 2021 · USSRC LMDE, The TRW Lunar Module Descent Engine (LMDE, VTR-10) was a pressure-fed, variable thrust, gimbaling, liquid-propellant rocket ...Missing: retrorocket | Show results with:retrorocket<|separator|>
[41]
Mechanical Design of the Lunar Module Descent Engine
The LMDE is a pressure-fed, bipropellant, variable thrust, gimballing, chemical rocket engine with a maximum thrust of 9850 lbs, throttleable down to ...Missing: retrorocket | Show results with:retrorocket
[42]
Surveyor 1 - Moon Missions - NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The soft landing was achieved using a retrorocket and a bank of three thrusters to slow the lander's speed from almost 6,000 miles per hour to just 3 miles ...
[43]
Historical perspective - Viking Mars Lander propulsion
The Viking Terminal Descent Rocket Engines have twice the thrust of the largest monopropellant hydrazine engine developed previously but weigh considerably less ...
[44]
The Mission of Luna 13: Christmas 1966 on the Moon
Dec 24, 2016 · The second firing was for the final 46-second braking burn to decrease the spacecraft's velocity by about 2,600 meters per second for the ...
[45]
[PDF] Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing – Supersonic Retro Propulsion ...
A three engine retro-propulsion configuration with a 2.5 inch diameter sphere-cone aeroshell model was tested in the NASA Glenn. 1x1 Supersonic Wind Tunnel (SWT) ...
[46]
[PDF] Status of Mars Retropropulsion Testing in the Langley Unitary Plan ...
The test will be conducted in the NASA Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel and is designed with im- provements in model design and data products over past tests.
[47]
[PDF] The Effects of Lunar Dust on EVA Systems During the Apollo Missions
The source of the dust coating was later determined to be largely from the dust kicked up when the LM landed. In addition to vision obscuration on landing, the ...Missing: retrorockets | Show results with:retrorockets
[48]
SpaceX rocket in historic upright landing - BBC News
Dec 22, 2015 · The Falcon-9 craft touched down late on Monday night, about 10km from its launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
[49]
List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches - Wikipedia
As of November 11, 2025, rockets from the Falcon 9 family have been launched 572 times, with 569 full mission successes, two mission failures during launch, ...First-stage boosters · 2010–2019 · 2020–2022 · Drone ship
[50]
SpaceX's reusable Falcon 9: What are the real cost savings for ...
25 Apr 2016 · If SpaceX passed on to its customers 50 percent of the cost savings, the company could reduce today's Falcon 9 price by 21 percent, to $48.3 ...
[51]
https://spacexnow.com/stats
[52]
[PDF] Advancing Supersonic Retropropulsion Using Mars-Relevant Flight ...
Flight dynamics simulations have demonstrated that SRP initiation generally occurs at a minimum altitude boundary subject to subsequent timeline constraints ...
[53]
Re-entry Burns of Falcon 9 | The Space Techie
Jul 11, 2021 · Falcon 9 uses three re-entry burns: a boostback burn to reverse trajectory, an entry burn to slow down, and a landing burn using one engine.<|separator|>
[54]
SpaceX wants to test refueling Starships in space early next year
Nov 1, 2024 · SpaceX will attempt to transfer propellant from one orbiting Starship to another as early as next March, a technical milestone that will pave the way for an ...Missing: retropropulsion | Show results with:retropropulsion
[55]
Blue Origin Makes Historic Rocket Landing
Nov 23, 2015 · At liftoff, the BE-3 delivers 110,000 pounds of thrust. During ascent, astronauts experience 3x the force of gravity as the spacecraft ...
[56]
Rocket Lab plans to reuse small rockets by catching with a helicopter
Aug 6, 2019 · Rocket Lab, the leading U.S. company in launching small rockets, is looking to recover and re-use the largest part of its Electron rocket.
[57]
Grid Fins & Rocket guidance - Space 'n' Science
As said on the SpaceX website : Falcon 9's first stage is equipped with hypersonic grid fins which manipulate the direction of the stage's lift during reentry.
[58]
[PDF] RANS Simulations of Advanced Nozzle Performance and ... - PoliTO
a retro-propulsion manoeuvre, the analysis of aerodynamic performance distinguishes ... reusable rockets ... coefficient (CF) and specific impulse (Isp), derived as ...
[59]
Apollo 13 Flight Journal - Day 3, part 3: Aquarius Becomes a Lifeboat
Jun 10, 2020 · RETRO produced several options for a return trajectory very soon after the accident. The first option they looked at was the direct abort ...
[60]
[PDF] Space Shuttle System Program Definition - NET
Mar 15, 1972 · 2.9.4 Abort. An examination of the abort modes defined f w the various phases of the ascent trajectory (excluding pad abort) identifies the ...
[61]
Credible Sport: The Super-STOL Hercules | Defense Media Network
Sep 5, 2012 · The "Credible Sport" was a "super-STOL" C-130 program using missile rockets for takeoffs/landings, designed to land in a stadium and take off ...Missing: 1977 | Show results with:1977
[62]
1950s Helicopter Experiments - ROR - Rocket on Rotor - YouTube
Feb 7, 2014 · During the mid 1950's the United States Navy experimented with "Rocket on Rotor" (ROR) technologies. This documentary shows some of the ...Missing: early retrorocket
[63]
Papers & Reports 2024 - NASA Advanced Supercomputing
Simulations of unsteady supersonic retropropulsion flow over a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator blunt-body vehicle were performed using the ...