the.com/retrorocket
A rocket you fire backward so you can stop showing off and actually land.
means A small rocket engine mounted facing forward, fired against the direction of travel to slow a spacecraft or vehicle down for landing, orbit adjustment, or re-entry.
from Built from 'retro-' (Latin for 'backward,' from 'retro' meaning 'back, behind') plus 'rocket' itself, which traces to Italian 'rocchetta,' a little spindle — early rockets were named for their spindle-like tube shape. The word 'retrorocket' is a 20th-century coinage, rising with the space age, when engineers needed a plain, functional name for engines that fire opposite the craft's motion. No myth here — just rocketry's habit of naming things exactly what they do.
- name origin
- retro means backward, thrust opposes motion
- apollo use
- slowed lunar modules for soft moon landings
- also called
- retro-thrusters in sci-fi and real spacecraft
- core irony
- full throttle used to slow down, not speed up