chemical rocket
Noun
Meaning
chemical rocket (plural chemical rockets)
(astronautics) a rocket that uses a chemical reaction of its propellants to generate its gaseous exhaust
Related terms
Examples
For a chemical rocket the propellant mass therefore would include both fuel and oxidizer ; for air-breathing engines only the mass of the fuel is counted, not the mass of air passing through the engine.
Even a trip to the Moon is long enough for an electric propulsion system to outrun a chemical rocket – the Apollo missions took 3 days in each direction.
This was essentially an ordinary chemical rocket with the nuclear reaction replacing chemical combustion as the rocket's heat source.
It uses ion thrusters in combination with swing-bys to get to Mercury, where a chemical rocket will complete orbit insertion.