Three-stage Rocket

Let us take a look at our first slide.

You see a model of the three-stage rocket on this picture.

Up to this lower white line, here is the first stage. It is powered by a number of rocket engines which will lift the missile off the ground until it has reached, after approximately one minute, a maximum speed in the order of 3,600 to 4,000 miles per hour.

At this point the first stage is jettisoned. Its tanks are now burned out and the rocket motors of the second stage take over.

The second stage has a velocity increment of approximately six to eight thousand feet per second to that of the first stage, and after this speed of approximately 12,000 feet per second has been reached, the second stage, likewise exhausted, would be dropped.

Now the rocket motor in the last, or top, stage will take over. This top stage will now forge ahead at an initial speed of roughly 12,000 miles per hour until the final orbital speed of 18,000 miles has been reached.