Concepts

Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation

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Also Known As Ideal rocket equation

Citation Formats

General Reference

Space and Astronomy Atlas. "Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/tsiolkovsky-rocket-equation.

APA Style

Space and Astronomy Atlas. (n.d.). Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/tsiolkovsky-rocket-equation

BibTeX

@misc{spaceandastronomyatlas-tsiolkovsky-rocket-equation,
  author = {Space and Astronomy Atlas},
  title = {Tsiolkovsky Rocket Equation},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://dev-space.interactiveatlas.org/concepts/tsiolkovsky-rocket-equation},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

An equation describing the relationship between a rocket's change in velocity, its exhaust velocity, and the ratio of its initial to final mass, grounded in conservation of momentum for a body that expels mass to accelerate. It is the foundational relation for determining how much propellant a mission requires for a given delta-v, and it explains the practical difficulty of reaching high velocities with chemical propulsion.

Facts

Concept Domain

Spaceflight dynamics 1

Formulated Year

1903 1

Usually credited to Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, who published it in 1903, though William Moore outlined it as early as 1810 and Robert Goddard and Hermann Oberth obtained the same result independently in 1912 and 1920.

Proposed By

Independently derived and published by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1903; the equation was earlier outlined by William Moore in 1810 and 1813, and independently rederived by Robert Goddard in 1912 and Hermann Oberth in 1920. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections