system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:How do rockets move and change direction in space?

I asked a science teacher this years ago when I was in school and he just said 'they have thrusters on the side'

So every action has a equal and opposite reaction right? So how can a a machine in space (mostly a vacuum with atoms floating around) change its course if there is nothing much to push against?
gpt
Because there's no friction in space, once a spacecraft is moving it keeps moving on its own. The effect of earth's gravity keeps it in an orbit around earth (or around whatever other body it's orbiting).

In order to change it's path, though, it has thrusters, as your teacher said. The thrusters eject gas out of the spacecraft. Gas accelerates one way, so the spacecraft accelerates the other way. So yes, as you say, equal and opposite actions.