Rockets are very general. Anything that squirts or blasts some exhaust out the back is a rocket, typically with its own fuel and oxidizer.

1.Water bottles can easily be made into high air pressure air or water rockets. A kit will give you corks that pop out when the pressure gets high enough. To get controlled higher air pressure, you need to build a PVC pipe launch tube, with tire pump nozzles, and corks.

2.Toy chemical rockets are faster and there are many kits, which come with the launch pad, and the parachute is also supplied.

3.Huge space chemical rockets are remarkably similar to toy chemical rockets, except liquid fuels are used like very cold hydrogen. Solid fuel is also sometimes used as a first stage booster, when just want large thrust and do not need to throttle.

Rockets are in an exciting era, with many launches of astronauts, satellites, and robots for planets. Commercial, not NASA, rockets are supplying the International Space Station and launching many satellites. Commercial rockets are experimenting with cost saving designs, like self landing re-usable boosters, hybrid-fuel engines, and piggy backing on an airplane before igniting the rockets. Instead of being a taxi service to the Space Station, large aeronautic companies are focusing on going to the Moon and Mars. NASA is free to focus on running missions in the Space Station, building robots to explore Mars, and developing plans to have people live on Mars and the Moon.

Part 1: Rocket types

Compares the three different types of rockets - water bottle, toy chemical, and real space rockets - with their different speeds and altitudes, different fuels and energy sources (pressurized air, solid fuel, and liquid fuel).

Part 2: Details of Rocket types

1.Toy chemical rockets provide a direct comparison to larger space rockets, but they accelerate too fast, typically use only solid fuels and only one stage.

2.Space chemical rockets have multiple stages to enable the orbital velocity and escape from earth. Design choices such as liquid and solid fuels, multi-stage rocket sections, and flight trajectory planning for the mission are explained.

Part 3: Future Rocket types

Describes futuristic cascaded engines to use oxygen in the atmosphere to get a rocket moving in the first stage, instead of lifting all that oxidizer weight. Also compares rockets to rail-gun cannons and space elevators.

This book is one of two versions. This heavier version does go into detailed engineering analysis in the appendices only. The other lighter version, 'Gamut of Speedy Rockets, for Kids', is mostly the same but does not have appendices, and does not go into detailed analysis. This other lighter version is more fun and appropriate for someone who is not interested in engineering equations.