Editing Rocket engine (section)

===Chemically powered===
{{See also|Liquid rocket propellant}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Type
! Description
! Advantages
! Disadvantages
|-
! [[Solid-propellant rocket]]
| Ignitable, self-sustaining solid fuel/oxidiser mixture ("grain") with central hole and nozzle
| Simple, often no [[moving parts]], reasonably good mass fraction, reasonable [[Specific Impulse|''I''<sub>sp</sub>]]. A thrust schedule can be designed into the grain.
| Throttling, burn termination, and reignition require special designs. Handling issues from ignitable mixture. Lower performance than liquid rockets. If grain cracks it can block nozzle with disastrous results. Grain cracks burn and widen during burn. Refueling harder than simply filling tanks. Cannot be turned off after ignition; will fire until all solid fuel is depleted.
|-
! [[Hybrid-propellant rocket]]
| Separate oxidiser/fuel; typically the oxidiser is liquid and kept in a tank and the fuel is solid.
| Quite simple, solid fuel is essentially inert without oxidiser, safer; cracks do not escalate, throttleable and easy to switch off.
| Some oxidisers are monopropellants, can explode in own right; mechanical failure of solid propellant can block nozzle (very rare with rubberised propellant), central hole widens over burn and negatively affects mixture ratio.
|-
! [[Monopropellant rocket]]
| Propellant (such as hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide or nitrous oxide) flows over a catalyst and exothermically decomposes; hot gases are emitted through nozzle.
| Simple in concept, throttleable, low temperatures in combustion chamber
| Catalysts can be easily contaminated, monopropellants can detonate if contaminated or provoked, [[Specific Impulse|''I''<sub>sp</sub>]] is perhaps 1/3 of best liquids
|-
! [[Liquid bipropellant rocket engine|Bipropellant rocket]]
| Two fluid (typically liquid) propellants are introduced through injectors into combustion chamber and burnt.
| Up to ≈99% efficient combustion with excellent mixture control, throttleable, can be used with turbopumps which permits incredibly lightweight tanks, can be safe with extreme care
| Pumps needed for high performance are expensive to design, huge thermal fluxes across combustion chamber wall can impact reuse, failure modes include major explosions, a lot of plumbing is needed.
|-
! [[Methane-oxygen gaseous thruster|Gas-gas rocket]]
| A bipropellant thruster using gas propellant for both the oxidiser and fuel
| Higher-performance than cold gas thrusters
| Lower performance than liquid-based engines
|-
! [[Dual mode propulsion rocket]]
| Rocket takes off as a bipropellant rocket, then turns to using just one propellant as a monopropellant.
| Simplicity and ease of control
| Lower performance than bipropellants
|-
! [[Tripropellant rocket]] 
| Three different propellants (usually hydrogen, hydrocarbon, and liquid oxygen) are introduced into a combustion chamber in variable mixture ratios, or multiple engines are used with fixed propellant mixture ratios and throttled or shut down
| Reduces take-off weight, since hydrogen is lighter; combines good thrust to weight with high average [[specific impulse|''I''<sub>sp</sub>]], improves payload for launching from Earth by a sizeable percentage
| Similar issues to bipropellant, but with more plumbing, more research and development
|-
! [[Air-augmented rocket]]
| Essentially a ramjet where intake air is compressed and burnt with the exhaust from a rocket
| Mach 0 to Mach 4.5+ (can also run exoatmospheric), good efficiency at Mach 2 to 4
| Similar efficiency to rockets at low speed or exoatmospheric, inlet difficulties, a relatively undeveloped and unexplored type, cooling difficulties, very noisy, thrust/weight ratio is similar to ramjets.
|-
! [[Turborocket]]
| A combined cycle turbojet/rocket where an additional oxidiser such as oxygen is added to the airstream to increase maximum altitude
| Very close to existing designs, operates in very high altitude, wide range of altitude and airspeed
| Atmospheric airspeed limited to same range as turbojet engine, carrying oxidiser like [[LOX]] can be dangerous. Much heavier than simple rockets.
|-
! [[Precooled jet engine]] / [[liquid air cycle engine|LACE]] (combined cycle with rocket)
| Intake air is chilled to very low temperatures at inlet before passing through a ramjet or turbojet engine. Can be combined with a rocket engine for orbital insertion.
| Easily tested on ground. High thrust/weight ratios are possible (≈14) together with good fuel efficiency over a wide range of airspeeds, mach 0–5.5+; this combination of efficiencies may permit launching to orbit, single stage, or very rapid intercontinental travel.
| Exists only at the lab prototyping stage. Examples include [[RB545]], [[Reaction Engines SABRE|SABRE]], [[ATREX]]
|}