How does a rocket go to the moon?

Answer 1

That depends on what it is carrying. The Saturn V rocket which carried American astronauts to the moon between 1968 and 1972 used a three stage system.

The first stage, the SI, would launch the Apollo spacecraft 'stack' from the surface of the Earth using 7.5 million pounds of thrust which burned all its fuel in the space of eight minutes. Explosive bolts would then fire and allow the expended first stage to fall away.

The second stage, the SII, would then kick in and fire five smaller engines to boost the spacecraft toward orbit. After another few minutes this stage would also burn out and fall away in a similar manner to the first.

The third stage, the S-IVB, would then place the Apollo spacecraft stack into orbit around the Earth. After a final check the S-IVB would then fire again and propel the spacecraft out of Earth orbit and toward the moon. About six hours into the mission, the Apollo Command Module (Crew capsule) would seperate from the top of the S-IVB and execute a 180 degree turn to extract the Lunar Module from its housing inside the S-IVB.

With the S-IVB useless it would be dumped in space while the Command Module and Lunar Module coasted to the moon.

Bear with me, this takes a lot of explaining!

Upon arriving in Lunar orbit, the two astronauts selected to walk on the moon would leave their third crewmember inside the Command Module to orbit the moon while they fly down to the surface for a stay of up to three days. Once finished they would fire an engine and return to Lunar orbit to join with their companion, jettison the now-useless Lunar Module and fly back to Earth inside the Command Module.

Once Earth is reached, the Service Module component that supplies most of the oxygen and battery power to the Crew Cabin was jettisoned enabling the Command Module crew cabin to undergo a re-entry of up to 26,000mph before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.

Quite simple really!