Rocket Ship Coloring Pages

Kids who ask for a rocket ship coloring page usually want one thing: a big rocket, a long flame and a lot of sky to fill. That is what this free printable collection gives them, from a simple rocket with round windows to a full countdown at the launch tower.

The drawings fall into a few kinds of flight:

• Launches: lift off beside a tower in clouds of smoke, a rocket waiting on the pad at sunrise, a take off through puffy clouds and one in the desert next to a cactus.
• Out in space: a rocket passing the moon, circling Saturn, chasing a shooting star, racing a comet and weaving through asteroids.
• Landings: a rocket standing on its legs on the moon, a ladder down to a rocky planet, a splashdown in the sea.
• Passengers: an astronaut, a robot pilot, a cat, a puppy at the controls and a friendly alien, each waving from the window.
• Homemade rockets: a cardboard box rocket with a kid inside, and a toy rocket on a bedroom shelf.
• Holiday rockets for Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Valentine's Day and birthdays.

What makes a rocket ship fly?

A rocket burns fuel and pushes hot gas out of its nozzle, very fast, toward the ground. The gas goes down, so the rocket goes up. Scientists call this action and reaction, Isaac Newton's third law of motion, and it works even in space, where there is no air to push against.

Most real rockets are built in stages. When a stage runs out of fuel, it drops away so the rocket does not carry its empty weight. In the collection, a rocket lets go of its empty lower stage high above the moon. Kids can color the falling part a different shade to show it is finished.

The rocket that went to the moon

The Saturn V carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon. In July 1969, Apollo 11 landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin there, while Michael Collins circled overhead. The landing pages, with a rocket on the cratered ground and a ladder down to the dust, are a good moment to tell that story.

Rocket ship launch coloring pages

The launch scenes carry the most action, and they are the ones children tend to choose first.

• Lift off beside the launch tower, wrapped in billowing smoke.
• Waiting on the launch pad at sunrise, before the countdown.
• A space shuttle with its two white side rockets, rising on a column of smoke.
• Blasting off into the stars on a long trail.

The Space Shuttle flew from 1981 to 2011. It launched like a rocket and landed on a runway like a glider, which makes it a fun comparison with the airplane coloring pages.

A tip for these pages: leave the smoke white or very pale gray. The bright flame in the middle reads better against it.

Coloring a rocket ship flame, smoke and night sky

Real rockets are mostly white, sometimes with black or orange panels and a flag on the side. A child's rocket can be any color at all, and a red, blue and silver ship is a classic.

For the flame, work from the inside out:

1. Yellow at the nozzle, where the flame is hottest.
2. Orange in the middle.
3. Red at the ragged tips.

For the sky around it:

• A dark blue or purple wash with pencils is softer than black marker.
• Leave each star white, or dot it with yellow.
• On the moon pages, gray craters with a darker rim look round.

The planets in the background follow their real colors: Saturn is pale gold with tan rings, and Earth shows blue oceans and green land. The planets coloring pages and the solar system coloring pages have the full family lined up from the sun outward.

Who is flying the rocket ship?

Several pages put a face in the round window, and these are the ones small kids like best.

A smiling astronaut waves from the cabin. A robot pilot waves too, and the robot coloring pages are full of his cousins. A cat peeks out of a window, and a puppy astronaut sits at the controls, so cat and dog fans can head next to the cat coloring pages and the dog coloring pages. A small alien waves hello from its own rocket.

Then there are the rockets kids build themselves. A cardboard box rocket with taped seams carries a waving kid and painted stars. Another box rocket wears a recycling symbol. They are a good excuse for a real one at home: a big box, a paper cone on top and foil for the windows.

Holiday rocket ship coloring pages

The rocket comes back through the year, dressed for each season:

• Christmas: a rocket wrapped in lights with a wreath and a bow, and one carrying a decorated tree. Keep going with the Christmas coloring pages.
• Winter: a snow-capped rocket beside a snowman in a knitted hat, like the ones in the snowman coloring pages.
• Halloween: a rocket full of jack-o'-lanterns, and another decorated with bats and ghosts. The Halloween coloring pages carry on the theme.
• Easter: a rocket carrying a basket of painted eggs, with more eggs in the Easter coloring pages.
• Valentine's Day: a rocket with a big bow and hearts.
• Birthdays: a rocket tied to a bunch of party balloons.

Space birthday ideas with rocket ship pages

A space party needs very little. Print the balloon rocket, the launch scenes and a few passenger pages, then set out yellow, orange and dark blue.

Each guest can color a rocket and write their own mission name on the side. Cut the finished rockets out and tape them to a black paper sky on the wall, with a countdown from ten written in chalk. The happy birthday coloring pages add a cake page for the table.

Simple rocket ship pages for preschoolers

Most of these rockets are big shapes with thick outlines, which suits children who are three or four. The single rocket with round windows, the rocket flying over Earth and the puppy pilot are good first pages. Quick to color, the button above the grid, brings those plain rockets to the front:

• Rocket ship with three round windows
• Rocket ship chasing a shooting star
• Rocket ship with Halloween bats and ghosts

Older kids can look for the scenes with a full background, like the space station with its solar panels or the launch tower in smoke. Those take longer, with more small shapes to fill around the rocket.

For a classroom unit, pair these pages with the star coloring pages and the wider space coloring pages, which go further out to nebulas and galaxies. The Earth coloring pages work for a lesson on what our planet looks like from orbit.

Rocket ship sheets for a class display or a party table

• Each rocket is a free PDF, set up for A4 at 300 dpi, so the flame keeps its clean edge.
• On US Letter, the fit to page setting keeps the tip of the nose cone on the paper.
• For a party table, tap Add to pack under each rocket and print them all from one file.

The printing guide explains where those settings hide in each browser.