The Rocketpunk aesthetic is based on retro-futuristic or near-futuristic depictions of spaceflight, space exploration, and settlement, usually with realistic (as in hard science fiction ) or semi-realistic science and engineering considerations.

As quoted by Winchell Chung's Atomic Rockets website, Rick Robinson of the Rocketpunk Manifesto blog specifically defines the term as retro-futuristic visions of space travel from the 1950s: advanced and cheap aerospace technology with primitive electronics.

The term "NASApunk" has been used by the developers of the video game Starfield to refer to an aesthetic inspired by real-life space programs like NASA (but not necessarily hard sci-fi).

The aesthetic of realistic cylindrical and conical space warships has sometimes been jokingly referred to as "COADEcore" on the ToughSF Discord server, in reference to the video game Children of a Dead Earth .

Rocketpunk is based on the " Space Age " which began in the 1950s, especially with the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik in 1957. Prototypical examples include 19th century science fiction like Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon , as well as 1920s-1940s media like Buck Rogers . Shortly after World War II, rockets in science fiction came to resemble the infamous German V-2 missile. Traditionally, Rocketpunk can appear like 1950s-1960s pulp sci-fi illustrations associated with Atompunk and Raygun Gothic , including the social conventions of the time.

More modern and realistic (hard) sci-fi tends to be inspired by real-life space programs or proposals, such as NASA's Apollo Moon missions, the unbuilt Project Orion nuclear spacecraft, or the International Space Station. A larger human presence in space may be depicted in the form of interplanetary spacecraft and space colonies. The tone can range from optimistic (but not without challenges) to dystopian.

Many realistic crewed spacecraft designs may feature a few or more of these characteristics:

In addition, retro-futuristic rockets and spacecraft may feature: