thruster

thrust·er | \ ˈthrə-stər

How to pronounce thruster (audio)

\

variants: or less commonly thrustor

Definition of thruster

: one that thrusts especially : an engine (such as a jet engine) that develops thrust by expelling a jet of fluid or a stream of particles

Examples of thruster in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The problem was the emulator had the wrong thruster configuration programmed in at the time of the test, Mulholland said. — Washington Post, "NASA’s new rocket would be the most powerful ever. But it’s the software that has some officials worried.," 31 Oct. 2020 When not evenly distributed across the entire asteroid, this thermal radiation acts like a minuscule thruster, causing the asteroid to drift and change its orbit over time. — Dante S. Lauretta, Scientific American, "To Bennu and Back," 1 Aug. 2016 However, as the lander approached the moon, a thruster failed and sent the spacecraft spinning, ultimately leading to a crash. — Ryan W. Miller, USA TODAY, "A mini moon about to orbit Earth may actually be a piece of space junk from the 1960s," 12 Oct. 2020 In early 2019, Fearn flew to Germany to deliver another thruster to Tajmar. — Daniel Oberhaus, Wired, "Gravity, Gizmos, and a Grand Theory of Interstellar Travel," 3 Sep. 2020 For instance, playing back the Space X launch, the noises of ignition and a thruster that’s heating up will quickly fill the room. — Jacob Krol, CNN Underscored, "For $249, this 5.1 Vizio Home Theater setup is an easy way to boost TV audio quality," 12 Aug. 2020 No nuclear electric systems have been built yet, but the idea is to use a high-power fission reactor to generate electricity that would then power an electrical propulsion system like a Hall thruster. — Popular Science, "The next era of space travel should include nuclear-powered rockets," 27 May 2020 A few hours later, a thruster burn steered OSIRIS-REx toward Bennu. — Chris Wright, Wired, "The Remarkable Stuff Scientists Get Done as They Work From Home," 8 June 2020 Executing a precise series of thruster firings, the Crew Dragon looped up to a point directly in front of the station and lined up on the lab's forward docking port, the same one once used by visiting space shuttles. — William Harwood, CBS News, "SpaceX Crew Dragon chalks up picture-perfect space station docking," 1 June 2020

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'thruster.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Dictionary Entries near thruster

thrust coefficient

Statistics for thruster

Last Updated

10 Nov 2020

Cite this Entry

“Thruster.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/thruster. Accessed 30 Nov. 2020.

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