rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

ry, battleship was a term used during the design of the

Saturn V The Saturn V is a retired American super heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by NASA under the Apollo program for human exploration of the Moon. The rocket was human-rated, had multistage rocket, three stages, and was powered by liquid-propel ...

to refer to a heavy duty rocket stage which was used to test configuration and integration of a

launch vehicle A launch vehicle is typically a rocket-powered vehicle designed to carry a payload (a crewed spacecraft or satellites) from Earth's surface or lower atmosphere to outer space. The most common form is the ballistic missile-shaped multistage ...

. The term was used in contrast to the boilerplate nickname, which refers to a non-functional mock-up used to test spacecraft. A battleship is functional, but simpler, cheaper and heavier than the operational version. Thus, it functions but does not achieve the same performance (such as thrust-to-weight ratio) as the operational one. In particular, propellant tanks and major structural components were made of thicker, more rugged materials rather than being carefully thinned to save as much weight as possible. This is done mainly to test the liquid engines operationally and the configuration of the propellant tank passively.

References

Rocketry Rockets and missiles Saturn (rocket family) {{rocketry-stub

See also

References