By the end
What you'll build
- Explain why orbit is about sideways speed, and compute orbital and escape velocities from vis-viva with real constants
- Apply the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation in Python to predict delta-v, mass ratios, and the exponential cost of spaceflight
- Compare propellant families and engine cycles, and justify why real launchers stack solids, hypergolics and cryogenics the way LVM3 does
- Design a staged rocket in a simulator that reaches the ~9.4 km/s LEO budget with a realistic payload, and itemise where that budget goes
- Narrate India's launcher lineage (SLV to LVM3), what human-rating adds for Gaganyaan, and how life support and g-forces shape crewed missions
Curriculum
What's inside
5 modules · 28 lessons
- 01
Why Rockets Are Hard
6 lessons- Start Here: Your Launchpad
- Space Is Not High, Space Is Fast
- The Rocket Equation: Tyranny and Loophole
- Python Lab: Tsiolkovsky in numpypython lab
- Numericals: Working the Rocket Equationfill blank
- + 1 more lesson
- 02
Engines and Propellants
6 lessons- Inside a Rocket Engine
- Propellant Families: The Menu and Its Prices
- Engine Cycles: Plumbing Decides Performance
- Flashcards: Engines & Propellantsflashcard sr
- Rocket Sim: Meet the Wallrocket sim
- + 1 more lesson
- 03
Staging and Reaching Orbit
8 lessons- What an Orbit Really Is
- Orbit Playground: Fly the Conicsorbit playground
- Staging: The Legal Loophole
- The Delta-v Budget: Where 9.4 km/s Goes
- Python Lab: Build the Launch Invoicepython lab
- + 3 more lessons
- 04
India's Launchers: SLV to LVM3 and Gaganyaan
4 lessons- From Thumba to the PSLV Workhorse
- GSLV and the Cryogenic Struggle
- LVM3 and the Art of Human-Rating
- Module 4 Quiz: India's Road to Spacequiz
- 05
Humans in Space
4 lessons- Life Support: A Bubble of Kerala in the Void
- G-Forces: Ascent and Re-entry
- India's Astronauts: 1984 to the Gaganyaan Four
- Module 5 Quiz: Humans in Spacequiz
The shape of it
How this course works
Short lessons
28 lessons across 5 modules, each small enough to finish in one sitting.
Practice as you go
Every lesson ends with a small space for what you noticed — the doing is the learning.
A certificate at the end
Finish the course and earn a certificate anyone can verify with a link.
Ready when you are.
Make an account and this course opens up — your progress is saved from the very first lesson.