Space Exploration Day| Meet the parts that make space exploration possible
This article explains the fundamental components of space exploration, including launch vehicles, payloads, orbiters, landers, and rovers. It provides definitions for each to help readers understand how different spacecraft function during missions.
Why it matters
Understanding these basic components is essential for public engagement with space science and the ongoing missions conducted by agencies like ISRO and NASA.
A launch vehicle, commonly known as a rocket, is the powerful vehicle that carries a spacecraft from Earth into space. Its primary job is to generate enough thrust to overcome Earth’s gravity and place the mission on the correct path. Once it has completed this task, the rocket’s role ends.
The payload is the object that a space mission is designed to carry into space. In simple terms, it is the reason the rocket is launched. While the launch vehicle provides the ride, the payload performs the mission. Whether that’s studying Earth, exploring another planet, carrying astronauts, or conducting scientific experiments.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) releases an image of Chandrayaan-3 Vikram Lander clicked around 11 a.m. IST from about 15 m through a Pragyan rover's navigation camera, hours after the release of its first image, which shows the lander resting on the moon's surface. | Photo Credit: ANI
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in