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Astronomy & Space vocabulary · Orbits & Gravity

Trajectory

Meaning in astronomy & space, with examples

/trəˈdʒektəri/nounCommon term

In astronomy & space, trajectory means: The path that a rocket, spacecraft or other moving object follows through space, especially when it is not a closed orbit.

In Turkish: uçuş yolu, yörünge, rota

How it is used

Used by mission planners and flight dynamics teams. They design, calculate and correct a trajectory with small engine burns called trajectory correction manoeuvres. A probe can be 'on a trajectory to Mars'.

Example sentences

  1. A short engine burn put the spacecraft back on the right trajectory.

  2. The asteroid's trajectory shows it will miss Earth by a wide margin.

Common collocations

  • trajectory correction
  • flight trajectory
  • change the trajectory
  • on a trajectory to
  • orbitThe curved path that an object such as a planet, moon or satellite follows around another object because of gravity. As a verb, it means to move along this path.
  • escape velocityThe minimum speed an object needs to break free from the gravity of a planet or another body without any further push. For Earth it is about 11.2 km per second.
  • flybyA manoeuvre in which a spacecraft passes close to a planet, moon or other body to study it or use its gravity, without going into orbit or landing.
  • space probeA robotic spacecraft without a crew that is sent to study planets, moons, comets or deep space and sends its data back to Earth.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Orbits & Gravity

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