We watch rockets thunder off the launch pad and vanish into the sky, but the physics that gets them there is both simpler and stranger than most people imagine. This episode unpacks how a rocket really works — no air to push against required.

You’ll come away understanding why a rocket can accelerate in the vacuum of space, what Newton’s third law has to do with it, why rockets are built in stages, and why getting to orbit is so punishingly hard.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: NASA – “Rocket Principles” and “Newton’s Laws of Motion”; ESA – “Launchers”; Randall Munroe, What If? (on orbit).