Conventional rockets are the kind of rockets you imagine if you think of the space shuttle lifting off, or an Apollo mission blasting off from Cape Kennedy. There is a huge rumble and great clouds of gasses and flame. Conventional rockets are the 3-2-1-BLASTOFF kinds of rockets, which provide a huge amount of thrust to push something off of Earth into space.
Conventional rockets, like any rocket, jet airplane, firework or released balloon, work through a phenomenon called propulsion. Basically, the rocket is pushed forward because material is streaming out of the back of it. Most conventional rockets work through superheated gasses being pushed out of the back of them. These gasses are formed by burning fuel in the presence of oxygen, or another substance called an oxidizer that allows burning to happen.
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