Following the discussion innocently started by @ChrisG_NSF - was the Space Shuttle a rocket?
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A lot of people consider the shuttle to be a "payload" rather than a rocket on it's own. This is mostly due to the fact that the fuel tank was external, but also because of the solid strap-on boosters. Let's expand! 2/10
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So what makes something "a rocket"? Essentially, anything that has a rocket engine is a "type-of" rocket. This includes the X-15 "Rocket Plane" for example. 3/10https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/nasa-knows/what-is-a-rocket-k4.html …
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The Space Shuttle had 3 such engines, the massive RS-25 AKA SSME (Space Shuttle Main Engine). The 3 SSME's were lit on the pad, throttled to full, and once everything looked good the solid boosters were ignited and the launch clamps released. 4/10https://youtu.be/uuYoYl5kyVE?t=51 …
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The solid boosters fire for about 2 minutes while the SSME's continue firing for about 7-8 minutes, all the way from ground to near orbital insertion. The external tank is then jettisoned and the Orbital Maneuvering Systems (OMS) finish up the orbital insertion. 5/10
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So at this point it should be obvious that the Space Shuttle was a "type-of" rocket at the very least. So what about the fuel tank and boosters? 6/10
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A lot (A LOT) of "stick" rockets use boosters of varied sorts (liquid or solid). These include the Soyuz, Delta 4 Heavy and Ariane 5 to name a few. So we can easily conclude that the boosters aren't a part of the question, since many rockets use them. 7/10
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So what about the external tank? What about it - I say! The external tank is lifted up by the SSME's all the way from ground to near-orbit. How is this any different from conventional "stick" rockets? 8/10
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This type of configuration requires more complicated plumbing but it allows the Orbiter the luxury of being smaller (it's still huge, though) since it just dumps the fuel tank once it's done with it, and then it can land back without all the excess mass! 9/10
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I have to conclude that the Space Shuttle is indeed a rocket. Maybe it doesn't look like what some people think a rocket is "supposed" to look like - it's certainly a very special kind of rocket - but it checks all the boxes. /end
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End of conversation
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