Word.ws English Dictionary

gravity drag

gravity drag noun: the resistance felt by a vehicle ascending against the force of gravity; reduction in delta-v experienced as a result of the partial cancellation by gravity of the vertical component of the thrust applied by a vehicle's engine(s).

Noun

gravity drag (uncountable)

  1. The resistance felt by a vehicle ascending against the force of gravity; reduction in delta-v experienced as a result of the partial cancellation by gravity of the vertical component of the thrust applied by a vehicle's engine(s).
    • For GTO missions, the launch vehicle follows a significantly shallower flightpath than for LEO missions, considerably reducing gravity drag at the expense of a significantly increased thermal loading and somewhat greater structural loads and aerodynamic drag.

Questions about gravity drag

What does gravity drag mean?
Gravity drag means the resistance felt by a vehicle ascending against the force of gravity; reduction in delta-v experienced as a result of the partial cancellation by gravity of the vertical component of the thrust applied by a vehicle's engine(s).
What part of speech is gravity drag?
Gravity drag is a noun.

Words near gravity drag in the dictionary

  1. gravity cell
  2. gravity cells
  3. gravity dam
  4. gravity dams
  5. gravity darkening
  6. gravity drag
  7. gravity drop
  8. gravity drops
  9. gravity gun
  10. gravity guns
  11. gravity hill

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gravity drag (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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