Rocket Lab

What does it take to be a rocket scientist?

You are a rocket engineer for a space exploration company. Your job is to design a series of rockets and attempt suborbital, orbital, and escape velocity missions. Successfully designing and launching a rocket into space is extremely difficult, expensive, and full of tough choices.

Rocket components such as shape, propellant, control system, and staging affect the way a rocket flies. With each new mission, you must take into consideration each component’s reliability, cost, and performance. Have you chosen a powerful enough propellant? Is your control system prone to high failure rates? Failure is not an option here! The decisions you make will directly affect the success or failure of your rocket – and your space exploration company – because this is rocket science.

With the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum's Rocket Lab, you can:

- Build a virtual rocket by choosing its shape, number of stages, propellant, and control mechanism

- Personalize your rocket with your name

- Launch your rocket and watch how well it flies

- Modify your rocket to test out different combinations and achieve mission success