Apogee kick motor

Ok kiddo, you know that when you throw a ball in the air, it comes back down because of gravity, right? Well, imagine if you throw a ball really high, it goes up and up, and the higher it goes, the slower it moves.

This is kind of how a spacecraft gets into orbit around Earth. It needs to go up really high, and then move sideways super fast, so that it keeps going around Earth without falling back down.

Now, sometimes when a spacecraft is already in orbit, it needs a little extra boost to get to a higher or different orbit, or to get to another planet. This is where the apogee kick motor comes in.

Basically, it's a small rocket engine attached to the spacecraft that can give it a quick push when needed. It's called the "apogee" kick motor because it's used when the spacecraft is at the highest point in its orbit, which is called the apogee.

So, imagine your toy car is going around and around a track. If it starts to slow down, you can give it a little push to make it go faster again. That's kind of like what the apogee kick motor does for the spacecraft.

Hope that helps, kiddo!