A rocketship is a vehicle designed to travel through space using rocket engines, which work by shooting hot gases out the back to push the ship forward. Unlike airplanes that need air to fly, rocketships carry everything they need with them, which is why they can zoom through the vacuum of space where there's no air at all.

The most famous rocketships are those that carried astronauts to the Moon during the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s. Today, rocketships launch satellites that help with GPS, weather forecasting, and communication. Companies like SpaceX build rocketships to carry supplies to the International Space Station, and scientists are working on rocketships that could someday take humans to Mars.

What makes a rocketship different from a regular rocket is its design to carry people or cargo on journeys through space. The word captures something exciting: the idea of a ship that can sail through the sea of stars, the same way ocean vessels sail across water. When you see a launch on TV, with flames and smoke pouring out as the rocketship climbs toward orbit, you're watching one of humanity's most impressive technological achievements at work.