What happens to the rocket parts that are broken off multi-stage rockets to space?

Question

Does it burn up in the atmosphere, land in the ocean, or does the government cover up the destruction of the poor house it landed on?

Answer 1

Stuff either burns up in the atmosphere, or falls in the ocean... at least the stuff we launch.... because we launch from a spot that's pretty much surrounded by water. I have no idea what happens to the boosters other countries launch.

But the stuff that makes it into orbit is another matter. While there's a good chance it'll land in the water somewhere because about 70% of the Earth's surface is water, there's still a 30% chance that it'll hit land somewhere. I believe a piece of something landed in Canada. But we have a space station up there that's getting a little larger, or gaining more equipment, each time we send up a shuttle. That's going to come down someday. So is Hubble. Then there are tons of communications and surveillance satellites flying around up there that will eventually come down. But they're relatively small and likely will burn up on reentry.

Answer 2

Most of it burns up in the atmosphere. The Solid Rocket boosters from the shuttle are designed for mupltiple use and so they fall in the ocean and are recovered.

Any launch site is selected such that the path of the trajectory does not go over any land mass. That is why the Cape is on the East Coast and launches are to the East toward the Atlantic Ocean. On the West coast there is Vandenburg but it is used for polar orbit only and the trajectory goes over the Pacific Ocean. They even clear the ships out of the launch path so they won't be sinked if a laucher blows up mid-launch.

Answer 3

Because once the fuel is ignited, the space and structure which contained it and the motors themselves are useless and only add weight to the vehicle which slows down its future acceleration. By dropping the stages which are no longer useful, the rocket becomes lighter, so the thrust of future stages would be able to provide more acceleration than if the earlier stage were still attached, or a single large rocket would be capable of.

Answer 4

Rarely does a part big enough to do damage reach Earth's surface, and then it most likely misses anything man-made. There have been a few infamous cases of plutonium power sources burning up in the atmosphere or making it to the surface.
If the part breaks off at high altitude, it makes a dangerous missile that could damage other spacecraft; these may orbit for years.

Answer 5

The parts that come off before the rocket reaches orbit fall back into the ocean and if they are reusable are salvaged and reused. Anything that comes off after they reach orbit, burn up on re-entry or just fly around as space junk.

Answer 6

The parts that make it to space usually fall back to the earth's atmosphere where they burn upon reentry. REM: They are going as fast as the spacecraft that they came from. REM: How the spaceshuttle burns its tiles upon reentry.
The fuel tanks that fall back to earth shortly after liftoff usually fall back in the ocean or around the swampy area of Cape Canaveral

Answer 7

Space Junk

burns up on re-entry of the atmosphere or is made to be reused - lots of it hasn't come down yet! If it's too big it won't burn up and may land on someones head.

Answer 8

They fall back to Earth. Launching from Kennedy, they fall back into the Atlantic Ocean and there is a recovery team that retrieves boosters so that they can be re-used.

Doug

Answer 9

The first part falls back to earth and gets burnt up. The second part is left drifting in space.

Answer 10

They fall into the Atlantic Ocean and are recovered to used again.