Sometimes corporate speak is good.Ā For example, Space X calling their rocket explosion a ārapid unscheduled disassemblyā is the funniest thing Iāve heard all week
while it is a very funny term itās actually perfectly common rocketry terminology, itās the technical term for ārocket splodedā
another fun rocketry term isĀ ālithobrakingā. Like, one way spaceships lower their orbits is by skimming along the top of the atmosphere, letting the friction slow them down. This is calledĀ āAerobrakingā, because theyāre using the atmosphere as a brake.
Lithobraking, therefore, is coined by analogy, withĀ ālitho-ā being the greek root forĀ āstoneā. Itās how you slow your spaceship downā¦ by crashing it into the fucking ground.Ā
So a crashed rocketĀ āexecuted a lithobraking maneuverā.
Thereās also āEngine rich exhaustā, which is what happens when your rocket engine starts breaking apart and bits of machinery are burning along with the fuel thatās supposed to be burning.Ā
A more technical term isĀ āNegative periapsisā. Orbits have a periapsis and anĀ apoapsis, the lowest and highest altitude they reach each orbit. A negative periapsis, therefore, is a negative altitude. Your rocket hit the ground.Ā
And related is the termĀ āablative Xā. Ablative heat shielding is a type of heat dissipation where you have a layer of some material covering your spaceship, which heats up into a gas and blows away. So you lose bits of it as you go through the atmosphere. The joke version is when you refer to things asĀ āablativeā when theyāre not intended to be: ablative sensors, ablative wings, ablative space probe. that is, your spaceship lost parts it wasnāt supposed to lose while flying through the atmosphere.Ā
